THE 



JORDAN AND THE RHINE ; 

OR, 

BEING THE RESULT OF 

FIVE YEARS' RESIDENCE IN SYRIA, 

AND 

EIYE YEAES' RESIDENCE IN GERMANY. 



BY THE 

EEV. WILLIAM GKAHAM, 

MEMBER OE THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ARABIC 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SYRIA; MEMBER OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL 
SOCIETY OF THE RHINE, ETC. 



IrjfTOVQ XpKTTOQ xdsQ KUl (TYjJJLepOV 6 aVTOQ, KoX EIQ TOVQ altOVaQ. 
"EEALLEIN! EE UBEEALL! EE IMMEE ! 



LONDON: 

PARTRIDGE, OAKEY, AND CO., 34, PATERNOSTER ROW; 
AND 70, EDGWAEE EOAD. 

1854, 




OXFORD PRINTING PRESS, PADDINGTON. 




« 



TO MY WIFE, 

THE FAITHFUL PARTNER OF ALL MY JOYS AND SORROWS, 

BOTH IN THE EAST AND THE WEST, 
THIS BOOK 

IS, WITH DEEP THANKFULNESS TO GOD FOR HIS GIFT, 
INSCRIBED. 



PREFACE. 



I. The name of my book is intended to symbolise the two 
great divisions of the human race, whose customs, manners, 
and civilisation are so diflPerent from one another. The Jordan 
is associated with the deepest, holiest feelings of our nature, 
and is interwoven with the religion, the psalmody, and the 
devotion of the whole Christian world ; it is the river of 
sacred story, on whose banks have been transacted the greatest 
events recorded in the history of our race — the redemption of 
mankind, and the wars of the Crusades. How instructive the 
voice of its waters ! Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are at 
home on the Jordan. And oh, how various the events, how 
wonderful and glorious the chain of Divine Providence, ever 
one, though diverse and many- coloured as the rainbow which 
bespans the world. How numerous the sages and wise men, 
the kings, priests, and prophets, the saints, warriors, and 
heroes, who, from Melchisedec the King of Salem, to Grobat 
the Bishop of Jerusalem, have illustrated history and glorified 
or degraded humanity on the banks of the Jordan ! But the 
Ehine ! The Phine is, without doubt, the noblest, most cele- 
brated, and most historical river of the West. It lives in the 
thousand legends of the olden times of brave knights, fair 
ladies, and enchanted castles ; it is named in the ten thousand 
patriotic songs of Fatherland ; it is synonymous with many 
healthful and delicious wines ; and, from the legions of Yarns 
to those of Napoleon, it has been associated with the victories 



PREFACE. 



and defeats of the Eoman empire. It is, therefore, a suitable 
companion for the Jordan, and shall be associated with the 
fortunes of my book. 

II. The form ? Answer : I choose the form of Chapters 
and Journals, because I wish free scope for my thoughts. I 
wish to use all things — what I have read, what I have seen, 
and what I have heard— reason, imagination, and reflection. 
I would use history, philosophy, and religion; the customs 
and laws of nations ; criticism, poetry, and superstition ; every- 
thing that comes in the way of a man who has travelled much 
and read more. I would use it all for the objects which I 
have in view in this book. 

III. Wh.at are these objects? The iUustration and defence 
of the Word of Grod. This is the main object of the author, 
and he would direct the attention of the reader to the 
Chapter on the Customs connected with the human body 
especially, to the Journals on the Nationalism of German}'-, and 
to the general spirit of the whole, as confirming this assertion. 
Again, I seek to give the British nation a true and exact 
description of Orientalism. This is no book of travels ; it is 
a book of life. It is not the record of what I passed through, 
but of what I lived in. How many books of travels have 
appeared since I went to Damascus ! And most of them owe 
all that they contain about Damascus to the missionaries, or 
the scanty information of mideteers. It must be so. A tra- 
veller arrives in that city, he has no friend in it, knows not a 
word of the language, his interpreter, too, can neither trans- 
late nor put together correctly a single sentence ; how can 
he know anything of the people ? He is asked to spend a 
day with the missionaries ; he accepts the invitation, pimips 
them thoroughly ; and, in the forthcoming book of travels, 
Damascus occupies a conspicuous place ! My aim is different, 
and I hope my qualifications also. I refer the reader to the 



PREFACE. 



Vll 



Chapter on "An Oriental City as it is," and beg him to com- 
pare it with what he may have read on the same subject. As 
to the Journals, my object is to give my fellow-countrymen 
an idea of Germany as it is — the black and the white — the 
faith and infidelity — ^the prodigious labours, and the still 
more prodigious imagination of that plodding philosophical 
race. The subjects are miscellaneous, and were suggested by 
the occurrences of the day, or the quiet meditations of the 
evening. Those who expect to find in Journals nothing but 
the simple records of mental experiences, will probably find 
little pleasure in mine, inasmuch as they take in a much 
wider range. They include glances at the hidden life of faith 
in the soul, and the outward hopes of the church and the 
creation — the obstinacy and the inveterate infidehty of the 
Jews, as well as God's purposes in them — the great apostacy, 
which is the Papacy, and the man of sin which is its head, as 
well as the coming of the Lord to destroy them — the state of 
Popery and Protestantism in Germany — the German theories 
of reasoning, rationalism, and inspiration — their philosophies, 
their poetry, and their history, as well as the peculiarities of 
their social and domestic life. There is, also, an occasional 
reference to the East, inasmuch as the impressions which it 
made on me remain indelible, and occupy no small portion of 
my heart. There is no lack of variety, and I can only lament 
my inability to do justice to such vast and varied materials. 

lY. But it is asked. What do you think of Turkey and the 
present war ? My dear friend, the question involves many 
others, and to answer them all fully would require a volume. 
We are willing, however, to consider a few of the most im- 
portant of them, giving our opinion in the briefest manner 
possible. 

1. What is meant by the Turkish Government ? It means 
the Government of the House of Othman, in Constantinople, 



vm 



PREFACE. 



over kingdoms and provinces acquired by plunder and con- 
quest. Tlie Turks are a small horde of warlike barbarians, 
wbo for centuries have subjected to their power Christians, 
Jews, and Moslems. Their dominion is not merely that of one 
religion over another, but also of one nation over many nations. 
The Egyptians, Syrians, and Grreeks, be they Moslems, 
Christians, or Jews, detest the Turks as foreign conquerors 
and oppressors. The Turkish Government in Damascus is as 
foreign, and detested as the French Grovernment in Berlin 
was. Everything shows the rule of a stranger. The Pasha, 
and his clique from Constantinople, speak Turkish, while 
Arabic is the language of the people ; therefore, his commands, 
his edicts, his coui^ts of justice, must be administrated by 
agents and interpreters. A few years ago, the Damascenes 
rose up and burned the palace of their Pasha, as a proof of 
their detestation of foreign tyranny. 

2nd. Is there religious liberty in the Turkish empire ? 
Among certain classes there is, and the principle is making 
progress. It is a fact that there is a great body of Protes- 
tants in the empire, and their numbers and influence are 
increasing rapidly, and to them we must look for the true 
principles of religious liberty. A Protestant missionary 
labouring among J ews and Christians has more liberty in the 
Turkish empire than in any other country, save England, 
America, and Belgium. You may labour in Damascus abun- 
dantly among Jews, Papists, and Greeks ; they are all equally 
dogs and swine, though of a different aspect and colour, and 
whether a few of them change their colour or not, makes no 
difference in the mind of the Moslem ruler. But touch not 
the true believer at your peril ! The Moslem who changes 
his religion must, by the law of the Koran, die the death, 
and he shall die to this day with infallible certainty, notwith- 
standing all the rumours and plaudits that have been raised 



PHEFACE. 



about the reKgious Kberties of the East. In this respect the 
Moslems are as much persecutors by principle as the Papists 
themselves. The Pope, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the 
Commander of the Faithful, are of one mind in this matter. 
I now, therefore, put the question to the British nation and 
government, "Is it lawful for a Moslem to become a Chris- 
tian in the Turkish empire ? Is he sure of his life and pro- 
perty if he does ? I assert that to this hour both these 
questions must be answered in the negative ; and now is the 
time, when our fleets and our armies are propping up the 
tottering throne of the Osmanlis, to secure in its fullest ex- 
tent the great principle of religious liberty. We must do it, 
or it will never be done ; Pussia will not guarantee liberty of 
worship ; she is tyrannical in church and in state — a fierce, 
a murderous persecutrix of the truth of God as well of as all 
dissentients from the established religions. 

3rd. What is meant by maintaining the integrity of the 
Turkish empire ? J^othing whatever. It is high-sounding 
verbiage. To keep the Russians out of Constantinople is 
another matter, and we know what it means. The integrity 
of the Turkish empire ! Where is it ? The French claim 
the right of protecting the Papists, the Emperor of Eussia 
claims the right of protecting the members of the Greek 
church, and we have established a consul at Damascus to pro- 
tect the Jews ! Yet these are all subjects of the Porte ! 
Has not every consul and consular agent (and their name is 
legion), even fi'om the pettiest kingdoms of Europe, the right 
to protect all their servants and employees from all kinds of 
taxation and government control ? Is not every European of 
whatever name, and all who can in any way claim to be his 
servants, were it only by sweeping his court once a year, 
exempted by positive treaties from the taxation and control of 
the Turkish government ? This may be all right and neces- 



X 



PREFACE. 



sary, but it is not like independence, and without independence 
it will not long retain its integrity. The integrity of the 
Turkish empire ! We, the English, have dismembered it, and 
should other circumstances arise we would, without com- 
pimction, dismember it more and more. Who gave Greece 
its independence ? We did so, by dismembering the empire of 
the Osmanlis ; Egypt is nearly independent, and we made it 
so. Are we not by a kind of quiet prescription establishing 
our right to the navigation of the Euphrates ? Woidd it be 
any dismemberment of the empire were England on certain 
terms to become masters of Egypt ? By no means. The 
Pasha pays the Porte a certain number of purses annually, 
&c. ; now were we to provide for the Pasha as we do for the 
princes in India, would the Porte not as willingly receive the 
purses from us as from him ? Undoubtedly ; and his High- 
ness would be more regularly paid. For more than a century 
the Turks have been receding before the civilisation and 
warlike power of the West ; nor should it cause iis many 
regrets if their empire was entirely broken. But 

4th. Is it not possible to regenerate the Turkish nation by 
making them a great reforming, progressing, ciAoLising king- 
dom ? I think it nearly impossible. (1.) Their religion is 
opposed to progress, and must be overthrown in the first 
place. (2.) Then the vigour and force of the Turks lie in 
fanaticism alone ; if this is inflamed and strengthened they 
are invincible. If you fanatici-se them, civilisation is impos- 
sible ; if you destroy their fanaticism, the foundation of their 
empire is destroyed. (3.) The Turks are a smaU minority of 
the population, and have been so long accustomed to domineer 
over all others, that they never will, in my opinion, voluntarily 
submit to civil equality with the other nations and reLLgions. 
They will submit only to the conqueror, as they do in India. 
(4.) Besides, the Christians are still subjected to double taxa- 



PREFACE. 



XI 



tion ; all the offices of state are filled witli Moslems ; and 
the imperial armies, under the standard of the prophet, must 
be taken exclusiyety from the dominant religion. These are 
some of the impediments which stand in the way of Turkish 
progress and civilisation, and till I see other reasons than I 
liave yet seen, I must beKeve them to be insurmountable. 

5th. But what are to be the issues of the war ? God alone 
knows, and we can commit our ways only to Him, as the 
Eedeemer of His church and the Governor among the nations. 
It is possible that the threatened wars and commotions may 
be only the precursors of the King and the kingdom of 
righteousness and peace. The eye of the church has been 
opening of late to the glories of the millennial kingdom, and 
we cannot desire too earnestly that the fond aspirations of 
those students of prophecy ma}^ be true who look forward to 
the speedy coming of Christ in His glory. But apart from 
the prophetic hopes which sustain us in the season of adversity, 
it may be well to consider the human probabilities which seem 
to arise out of the present political combinations. It is 
probable, if in the decrees of God the hour of Turkey be not 
come, that the allies may prop up the government and post- 
pone the overthrow of the empire for eighty or one hmidred 
years ; it bears, however, the death- wound in itself, and in 
due time it shall be overthrown or break up of its own accord. 
It is melancholy that in the present war the Turks are in the 
right and the Eussians are in the wrong — the enemies of our 
Lord Jesus Christ are the defenders of treaties and the laws 
of nations, and the professors of Christianity the violators of 
both ! But He was betrayed to the Jewish rulers by one of 
His friends ! It is painful and very grievous that justice and 
the force of circumstances should have made it necessary for 
England to defend the Turks. But we are acting out our 
part in the great drama of history, and are no doubt, as a 



xu 



PREFACE. 



nation, under the leading of Diyine Proyidence. It seems 
strange, howeyer, tliat tlie most Protestant nation in the 
world should be at the present moment so unequivocally 
favouring the pretensions of Popery, and that the most 
Christian nation on earth should be preventing the destruc- 
tion of the mortal enemies of the gospel. France and 
England are now united ; and it seems likely, though contrary 
to our institutions, our character, and our history, that political 
combinations may make aristocratic England the patron of 
democracy and rebellion throughout the world. If the war 
becomes general, and the Continental courts league themselves 
against us, the conflagration will encompass the world, and it 
is impossible to anticipate what the end may be. In a bloody 
and prolonged struggle the principles of self-defence may 
compel us to side with nations against their princes, until, in 
the wars of classes — the many against the few, the deceived 
and trampled upon against their tyrannical deceivers — the 
demon of revolution shall have shaken every kingdom on the 
Continent. The spirit of revolt shall proceed from conser- 
vative England and inflame all the nations of the world. 
Our ships shall touch the shores of Italy, and a few procla- 
mations about unity, liberty, and independence shall set the 
Peninsula in a blaze. A million of warriors and liberators 
shall in less than three months, under the protection of France 
and England, rise up against their tyrants in the Italian 
plains. The Pope, more detested than all other sovereigns, 
shall leave Pome to return no more ; the tyrant of Tuscany, 
dethroned and banished, shall find a refuge in the British 
isles ; the hated dominion of Austria in that classic country 
shall fall, and Italy, regenerated and united, shall take her 
place among the nations of the earth. Meanwhile our agents 
and our money have reached the ancient kiagdom of Hungary 
— ^there is hope held out to the oppressed ! — there are leaders 



PHEFACE. 



Xlll 



to guide the movement, and money to pay the troops ! It is 
enough. The repressed nationality springs into existence, 
and five millions of heroic men, long oppressed by the House 
of Hapsburg, proclaim their independence and war to the 
death against their oppressors. Austria shall have enough to 
do without sending armies against the Turks. It is not im- 
possible that she may sink in the struggle, and it is impossible 
that a worse system of oppression should rise up in her stead. 
But Poland ! — ^yes, Poland, partitioned by her neighbours, has 
heard that England and France are at war with her enemies 
and oppressors, and the spirit of that heroic nation, which 
more than once saved Europe from barbarism and Islam, shall 
burst forth into fearful conflagration. Two words, one from 
France and another from England, would reunite fifteen 
millions of men, who have a country, heroic valour, and a 
historic name ! There will be work for Russia at Warsaw as 
well as beyond the Danube. But would England, the friend 
of the oppressed and the bulwark of order, liberty, and justice, 
unchain the demon of democracy to overturn the stable foun- 
dations of the whole social edifice, and cover the civilised 
world with anarchy and blood ? Answer : England will 
shrink from nothing necessary to preserve her existence ; and 
there are many mighty spirits in her who would willingly 
do the work in the name of liberty and a righteous retri- 
butive Providence. It must and will come to this, if the 
Continental powers join Russia and the war becomes long and 
bloody. Such is the position of England, and the force of 
political circumstances will not allow her to shrink from it, ; 

5th. But what if Russia should succeed in the war ? The 
consequences would be many, of which I may mention the 
following : (1.) All the movements of liberty and progress 
which are beginning to take place in the Orient would be 
arrested; the Turks are, on the whole, as ci^dlised as the 



XIV 



PREFACE. 



E/Ussians, and latterly have become more tolerant to those 
who diiFer with them on the subject of religion. (2.) The 
taking of Constantinople would not advance Christianity so 
much as many think ; the Turks would still remain, and the 
sword is no justifiable means of conversion. (8.) It would 
destroy the independence of Greece. (4.) It would seriously 
endanger our Indian possessions, and give the Russians the 
means of becoming the first maritime power in the world. 
(5.) It woidd deliver the Christians from cruel masters, who 
have long insulted and plundered them, but it would probably 
give them harder masters under the Christian name. JN^ever- 
theless, I have no doubt the Oriental Christians would wish 
the Russians to succeed in the present struggle. (6.) It 
would not augment the power of Russia so much as is 
imagined, inasmuch as she would have ten millions of 
enemies as a thorn in her side, and it seems impossible for 
any government to imite and harmonise so many different 
nations and languages. Besides, if the Turkish Empire were 
broken up, Russia could not appropriate all the spoil. England 
would make arrangements with the Imperial house of Otto- 
man for Syria and Egypt at least, while France and 
Austria would, in self-defence, seize their portions of the 
plunder. 

6th. But what about the Grreek nation ? There are still 
five millions who speak the language of Homer and Herodotus, 
who also inherit the pride, subtlety, and valour of their 
fathers, and who might be supposed to act a conspicuous 
part in the bloody drama of Oriental history. This people, if 
united under one head, and resolute to re-assert their ancient 
glory, might turn the scale between the contending parties, 
and re-establish in the nineteenth century the throne of 
Con&tantine. They have also a better right to Constantinople 
than the Turks ; and could a strong independent Christian 



PREFACE. 



XV 



empire be established on tbeBosphoms, it would be for religion, 
civilisation, and the progress of the human race, one of the 
most glorious events of history. Are the Greeks capable of 
this ? I doubt it very much. 

The Greeks are not fully independent, and they are divided 
into many parties, who hate each other cordially. There is 
an English party, a French party, a Russian party, and the 
protecting powers who guarantee their national existence 
have become the means of diminishing the national force. 
JSTo doubt there is a large body of Greeks in Greece, and 
elsewhere, who long for the restoration of the Byzantine 
Empire, and who consider this the best way of arresting the 
ambitious steps of Russia. These are enthusiasts, and deceive 
themselves. Every movement of the Greeks at the present 
moment, and in their weakness and divisions, can be only 
ruinous to the nation, and the Russian agents who are so 
busy with their promises and their gold, may be the means 
of breaking the kingdom to pieces. Let us hope that Greece 
may yet arise from the dust of its present ruins ! And that 
the future may bear some resemblance to the glory of the 
past ! In the meantime we must await the decisions of 
Divine Providence with patience and hope. We know there 
is a righteous Ruler over the nations, who can turn the hearts 
of men like the rivers of water to run into the ocean-current 
of His purpose of love. The threads of the wondrous web 
of providence centre in His throne ; and however perplexed 
and entangled the events of history may appear to the dim 
eye of reason, they are all subordinated to the will of our 
Father who is in heaven. 



CONTENTS, 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 

I. Differences between the East and the West in general. II. Some of 
the chief Causes of these Diversities, viz. : 1st. The Influence of the 
Pulpit ; 2nd. The Press ; 3rd. The Bar ; 4th. Steam, Roads, Means 
of Communication ; 5th. Union, Societies ; 6th. Religious and Politi- 
cal Liberty. HI. Distinguishing and attractive Peculiarities of the 
Land : 1st. It is the Land of Antiquities ; 2nd. It is the Land of 
Literature ; 3rd. It is the Land of Great Wars ; 4th. It is the Land 
of the Bible; 5th. It is the Land of Prophecy; 6th. It is the Land of 
a peculiar People and of peculiar Promises 

CHAPTER II. 

LEBANON. 

I. Illustrations of Scripture : 1st. General Observations ; 2nd. The 
House of the Forest of Lebanon ; 3rd. The Cedars of Lebanon ; 
4th. The Sides of Lebanon ; 5th. The Roots of Lebanon ; 6th. The 
Violence of Lebanon ; 7th. The Glory of Lebanon ; 8th. " The Skin 
of the Teeth " illustrated. II. The Inhabitants of Lebanon : — First, 
The Maronites ; Second, The Greeks. The Two Parties compared: 
1st. As to Literature; 2nd. As to Secular Employments; 3rd. As to 
Preparatory Training; 4th. As to Character in General. Monastic 
Institutions considered : 1. As to unnatural Crimes ; 2. As to Piety 
and Charity; 3. In Reference to Civilisation. III. The Druses of 
Mount Lebanon particularly described. IV. Various particulars : 1st. 
The Roads ; 2nd. The Terraces ; 3rd. The Animals ; 4th. The 

Villages and Houses 

h 



XYlll 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEH III. 

BAALBEK. 

PAGE. 

Introduction; General Scenery: I. The Walls; The Stones; The 
Quany. Who built Them ? II. The Temples : 1st. The Little Tem- 
ple described. 2nd. The Temple of the Sun described. 3rd. The 
Polytheon described. III. An historical sketch of Baalbek. IV. Ee- 
flections : 1st, The permanent Character of Localities ; 2nd. The 
partiaUty of History ; 3rd. The strength of Eeligious Convictions ; 
4th. National Character ; 5th. An Evening Scene 50 

CHAPTER IV. 

DAMASCUS. AN EASTERN AND A WESTERN CITY COMPARED. 

1st. As seen from above ; 2nd. As to Smoke and Clouds ; 3rd. The 
Approach to the City described ; -ith. Suburbs, Villas, single Houses ; 
5th. Life, motion, stir, business, confusion ; 6th. The laying out and 
disposition of the City; 7th. Compared as to Hotels and Pubhc Build- 
ings ; 8th, As to Literatm-e, Books, Paintings, Fine Arts, &c. ; 9th. 
As to Knowledge, current Literature, Newspapers, <fec. ; 10th. Com- 
pared as to public Amusements ; 11th. The Veiled Ladies ; 12th. A 
Peep into the Streets of Damascus 67 



CHAPTEE V. 

THE CITY OF DAMASCUS AS IT IS. 

The City of Damascus described exactly as it is : — I. The WaUs. II. The 
general Plan of the City. III. The Streets : 1. Their Dirt; 2. The 
Dogs ; 3. The Varieties and Extremes in the Streets ; 4. A strange 
Scene in the Streets; 5. Everything pubhc in the Streets. IV. The 
Houses : 1. The Materials ; 2. General Plan and Purpose ; 3. The 
Doors, Keys, &c. ; 4. The Court ; 5. The Eooms ; 6. The Harem ; 
7. The Eoofs ; 8. The Baths 86 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE JEWISH MISSION IN DAMASCUS. 

A. The Origin of the Mission : I. The Claims of the Jews ; II. The Mis- 
sion proposed. B. Missionary Difficulties ; I. The Language ; II. 
The Habits of the People ; III. The Climate ; IV. Con-upt Christi- 
anity; V. Civil Government; VI. Family Difficulties; VIL Jewish 



CONTENTS. 



XIX 



Fanaticism ; VIII. The Missionary is Alone ; IX. Much is expected 
from a Missionary; X. What Converts have you made? C. Missionary 
Labours ; AVhat are they? I. Acquiring the Language; II. Preaching 
the Word ; III. The Distribution of Books ; IV. Intercourse with the 
Jews ; V. The Use of the Press ; VI. Schools. D. Missionary Suc- 
cess : I. Among the Jews ; 1. Great Movement among the Jews ; 2. 
Noble specimens of Converted Jews ; II. Among the Heathen ; 1. 
The Noble Nature of the Enterprise ; 2. Have the Missionaries found 
Access to the People ? 3. Special Examples given ; 4. The American 
Board of Missions ; 5. Subsidiary Objects Ill 



CHAPTER VII. 

CUSTOMS OF THE OEIENTALS CONNECTED WITH DKESS AND THE 
HUMAN BODY. 

A. General Observations on Dress, and the Ditferences between the East 
and the West regarding it. I. The Orientals require less of it than 
we do. II. The Nature of the Garments is different. III. They do 
not Change their Garments as we do. IV. Thay Dress more richly 
than we do. V. Oriental Tailoring described. VI, Dress a Charac- 
teristic of the Human Eace. VII. Garments Typical: Colours; 1. 
White; 2. Black; 3. Green; 4. Blue; 5. Purple; 6. What Colour 
prevails in Damascus. VIII. Two Garments generally necessary. 

B. The various Parts of Dress descri1)ed as at present Avom in Damascus; 
Customs ; Illustrations of Scripture. I. The feet ; 1. The Foot-dress 
described; 2. Sandals and Shoes distinguished; 3. Laying off the 
Shoes ; its various Significations. II. The Loins ; 1. Trousers, 
Breeches, Pantaloons, Sherwal; 2. The Girdle or Zinnar described ; 
3. The Uses of the Girdle. III. The Breast, Shoulder, Arms, and 
Neck; 1. Customs connected with the Bosom ; 2. Customs connected 
with the Shoulder; 3. Customs connected with the Arm ; the Bare 
Arm ; Tattooing on the Arms ; Ornaments for the Arms. IV. The 
Hand ; 1. Peculiar meaning of the word Hand in the East; 2. Kissing 
the Hand; 3. Laying the Hand on what they Swear by; 4. Striking 
with the Hand; 5. No Gloves used in the East; 0. Saluting with the 
Hand; 7. Washing the Hands ; 8, The Plight Hand more Honourable • 
than the Left; 9. Dyeing or Staining the Hands. V, The Head : 
1st. The Head-dresses described; 2nd. The Hair; 1. Shaven-off; 
2. Denotes fierce Passion ; 3. Anointing the Hair ; 3rd. The Beard ; 
1. Uses of the Beard ; the History and Practice of Shaving ; 2. Swear- 



XX 



CONTENTS. 



ing by the Beard; 3. Dyeing the Beard; 4th. The Eyes; various 
Customs described; 5th. The Face; Ear-rings, and Nose Jewels; 
various Practices connected with them : 6th. The Veil ; Varieties, 
Nature and Uses 142 



JANUARY. 

I. The Angels' Song. 11. Blessed be His glorious Name. III. The 
German Christmas Tree. IV. Bernard's Hymn. V. Modern Deists. 
VI. Jesus the Home of the Heart. VII. The Majesty and Perfections 
of God. VIII. Transfiguratio. IX. Where is He to be found? 
X. The Protestants of Hungary. XL The Persecution of the Madiai. 
Marks of the True Church. XII. A Letter from Hungary. XIII. 
"Ov re deol (jjiXiovcn veaviaKog reXevrio. XIV. The Fruitful Vine. 
XV. Architecture. XVL Tracts. XVII. Questions for the Pope . . 199 



FEBRUARY. 

I. The Protestants of Hungary. II. The Prophetic Aspect of Christ's 
Ministry. III. ^Apv'iov 'Afivog — t^HD- IV. The Character of the 
Ancient Romans. V. German Professors ; their Character. VI. Jesus 
the Ark of the Soul. VII. ' AyaTrrj ; Questions for the Pope. 
VIII. 'O v'log rov 'AvdpMTrov ; the Brother. IX. De Nati\itate 
Domini . 226 

MARCH. 

I. G. G. Gervinus. II. Thoughts on Missions. HI. To the Memory 
: of my Son Edward ; 1. Notice ; 2. Wandering Thoughts ; 3. Medi- 
tation and Prayer ; 4. He is not Dead but Sleepeth — A Hymn ; 
5. Submission — A Hymn, Heb. xii. 10 ; 6. Jesus the Life ; the 
Eevealer — a Hymn; 7. The Elder-Brother, Heb. ii. 14, 15 ; 8. Edward; 
9. The East ; Associations. IV. Walk in Love. V. The Week's Work. 
VI. Scriptm-e Illustrations. VII. The Pope's Love to his Neighbour. 
A True Story. VIII. The Heavenly Mansions, John xiv. 2, 3. 



CONTENTS. 



XXI 



IX. Olivet; a Look after Christ. X. The Apocrypha; its Errors. 

XI. The Einging of Bells. XII. Titles of Honour; a Supper Party. 
XIII. Longing after Jesus. XIV. The GrrieYOus Wound. XV. Good 
Friday; 1. A Popish Custom; 2. The Lord's Supper; 3. Solemn 
Thoughts; 4. Hymnus Paschalis. XVI. The Tomh of Christ. 
XVII. Travelling; National Characteristics. XVIII. The Jews; 
Eecapitulation. XIX. The Darkness before the Dawn — a Hymn. . 245 

APRIL. 

I. Arabic Rhymes for my Son ; 1. For the Lord's Day ; 2. Morning 
Hymn ; 3. For taking Medicine ; 4. Memorial Ehymes. II. The 
Arabic Language ; Poetry ; the Oriental Imagination. III. Old Asso- 
ciations. IV. Coin; Prayer Meeting, Popery. V. Brussels. VI. 
Waterloo. VII. The Ascension. VIII. Mysteries of Nature ; Elec- 
tricity ; the Force of Will. IX. The Spirit helpeth our Infirmities. 

X. Questions for the Pope. XI. Saturday Evening; Eeflections. 

XII. God is Love. XIII. Ministry, ZiaKovLa- XIV. 'O \6yoQ rov 
(TTcivpov. XV. The Coming Glory, a Song. John xiv. 3 287 

MAY. 

I. " 0 that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion." II. Adora- 
tion. III. The Protestant Church on the Ehine. IV. A Jewish 
Prayer for the Eoyal Family of England. V. On Liturgies in the 
Church. VI. Elp7]vr) vfuv. VII. Jewish Objections; the Unity of 
God. VIII. German Students ; Character ; A Song. IX. The Little 
While. X. UevTrjicocrrr]. XL The Conversion of the Jews. XII. 
Augustine's Paradise. XIII. A Morning on the Lebanon. XIV. Cru- 
elty to Animals ; the Lament of the Hare in 1575. XV. Jewish Objec- 
tions; the Prince of Peace. XVI. A Letter to a Eoman Catholic; 
1. Lies ; 2. The Bible ; 3. Tyranny. XVII. , From Nature up to 
Nature's God. XVIII. The Little Child and the Father. XIX. Jesus 
at the right hand of God 315 

JUNE. 

I. Early Love to Christ. II. The Jews ; Objections. III. Advice to 
a Young Minister. IV. 'O Qeog Kal Uarjjp. V. The Ehine. VI. 
The Living Temple. VII. Thoughts on Turkey and the Turks. 



Xxii CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

VTII. Ta eXTTi^o/jLeva, "Things lioped for." IX. Freethinking 
among the Jews. X. Arabic Anecdotes 359 

JULY. 

I. The Tempter. Matt. iv. 1—12. II. Antichristian Ehymes. III. 
Morning Prayer. IV. Hie de Virgiue Maria Jesus Christus natus est. 
V. Superstition and Infidelity. VI. Jewish Objections. VII. On 
reading the Life of Arnold. VIII. Dark Days. IX. Magnitudes and 
Distances. X. Christian Joy. XL The Mass and the Night Joui-ney. 
XII. Traditions ; Priestly Power. XIII. The Bible— a Divine Song. 383 



AUGUST. 

I. My God. II. 'O KOcr^OQ vfjidg jjnael. III. German Students ; 
Parting Scene. IV. JeAvish Objections. V. mt'li^"'^^? the Prince 
of Peace. VI. Mm izoifivri, One Flock. VII. Calvaiy. VIII. The 
Meeting of Friends. IX. Polygamy in the East. X. The Female 
Character in the East. XL Eeligious and Political Changes in the 
East; Hopes. XII. Exegesis; or, the Ass eating Thistles. XIII. 
Love-tokens. XIV. Longing after God. XV. A Letter to Pope Pius 
IX,; the Holy Scriptures. XVL Germany; Peculiarities; Various 
Particulars 407 



SEPTEMBER. 

I. The Jews ; Stumbling-blocks. II. God is Near ! III. A Peep into 
a German Meeting. IV. Faith and OxDinions. V. The Countess of 
Wieland — The blessings of the Bible. VI. What are the Character- 
istics of the Age? Politically : 1. The Yielding of Old Piinciples ; 

2. Democracy; 3. The Turkish Empire ; 4. Gog and Magog ; 5. The 
Three Leavens; 6. The Eeconstructed Image. Ecclesiastically we 
have — 1. The Missionary Spirit ; 2. The Two Poles or Parties ; 

3. The Papal Aggression; 4. The Study of Prophecy. \H. 'ETrra 
TTvevfiara, Seven Spirits. IX. 'AyuTrr; rov TrvevfiaroQ, the Love of 
the Spirit. X. An Oriental Scene ; the Blessiugs of Polygamy. XL 
KaraTTttfo-tg, the Eest. XII. The Hebrew Language. XIII. The 
Dignity of I^uman Nature 446 



CONTENTS. 



xxiii 



OCTOBER. 

PAGE. 

r. Wylie on the Papacy, in German. II. 'H ayaitr] rov Xpiarov 
avvexei fjfxdg, " Constraining Love, " 2 Cor. v. 14. The Pilgrim's 
Song. III. The Jews ; Jewish Peculiarities. IV. What is Faith ? 
V. Characters in the same Church — Dean Swift and Dr. Pusey. VI. 
For whom did Christ die ? Scripture Expressions. VII, Prussian 
Patriotism, Oct. 18th. VIII. 'O 0£oe E(Ttiv aya-Kiq. IX. Jewish 
Interpretations, Genesis xlix. 10. X. Eejoicing in the Lord. XI. 
Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? XII. Loca Sancta ; First Im- 
pressions; a Hymn. XIII. Why do I reject the Authority of the 
Pope ? A Letter to a Romanist. XTV. Prayer 483 

NOVEMBER. 

I. The Doctrine of the Aoyog in both Covenants. II. The New Life 
in the German Churches — its Causes : 1. The Destruction of Ration- 

. alism; 2. A Better Ministry ; 3. Missions; 4. The King ; 5. Demo- 
cracy ; 6. The Kirchentag. III. 'H afXTrekog i] aXrjdLvrj, the True 
Vine. — John xv. IV. German Literature — Difficulties. V. The Rain 
and the Thirsty Ground — A Hymn. VI. The Philosophical Ten- 
dencies of the 18th Century 515 



DECEMBER. 

I. Angelology ; or, Thoughts on the Holy Angels. Objections Answered; 
1. The name, ' AyyeXog, and its applications ; 2. What do we know 
of Angels ? 3. Objections to the Doctrines of Angels ; 4 Various 
Questions concerning Angels. II. Klopstock : his Character and 
Poetry. III. The Sighing of the Soul after Jesus. IV. Inspiration ; 
German Notions. V.. Wieland. VI. German Celebrity ; Learned 
Men and Critics. VII. A Short Conversation on the Question, " Is it 
not possible to teach Theology profitably?" VIII. The Pilgrim's 
Wants and the Pilgrim's Song. IX. Dec. 25th, the Birth of Christ; 
1. Prophecy and Promise ; 2. Offices ; 3. All Varieties meet in the 
Manger. X. Are the Jews under a Curse? XI. Hope; a Hymn. 
XII. A Wish 535 



I. INTEODUCTORY CHAPTEK. 
n. THE LEBANON, 
in. BAALBEK. 
IV. DAMASCUS. 

V. DAMASCUS AS IT IS. 

VI. THE JE^VVTISH MISSION IN DAMASCUS. 
DEESS, AND THE HUMAN BODY. 



THE JOEDAN. 



INTRODUCTOEY CHAPTER. 

I. Differences between the East and West in general. II. Some of the chief 
causes of these diversities, viz. : 1st. The Influence of the Pulpit ; 2nd. 
The Press; -3rd. The Bar; 4th. Steam, Eoads, Means of Communication; 
5th. Union, Societies ; 6th. P^eligious and Political Liberty. III. Distin- 
guishing and attractive peculiarities of the Land: 1st. It is the Land of 
Antiquities ; 2nd. It is the Land of Literature ; 3rd. It is the Land of great 
Wars ; 4th. It is the Land of the Bible ; 5th. It is the Land of Prophecy ; 
6th. It is the Land of a peculiar People and of peculiar Promises. 

I. In order to form a right conception of tlie East, and the 
manners and customs of the oriental nations, I must in- 
vite you to detach yourselves, as much as possible, from 
those in which you have been born and educated. Let judg- 
ment and fancy check, yet sustain, each other in our delinea- 
tions of what we have seen and heard ; and imagination, like 
the lamp of Aladdin, transport us into the regions of the 
sun, the birth-place of the human species. Behold, now, in 
what a world you are. Everything is different from the 
cold, conventional, European world you have left. The food 
that you eat is different food, the sounds that you hear are 
different sounds, and the eye opens upon the old world of 
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, unchanged and unchange- 

B 2 



4 DIFFERENCES BET^^TIEN THE EAST AND ^S^rEST. 

able, to you noyel and altogetlier strange. Yet ^e have 
some tilings in common with them ; we must all eat, both in 
the East and in the West, and with the mouth too. We 
both see with the eves and hear with the ears ; the necessary 
and fundamental actions of the body are, indeed, the same, 
as they must be everywhere, else man would cease to be man ; 
but the nonessential, far more numerous, and highly important 
particulars, of which the sum total of oiu' existence is mainly 
made up — modes, customs, usages, all that you can set down 
to the score of the national, the social, or the conventional, 
are precisely as different from yoiu-s as the East is different 
from the West. They sit when you stand ; they lie when 
you sit ; they do to the head what you do to the feet ; they use 
fire when you use water ; you shave the beard, they shave the 
head ; you move the hat, they touch the breast ; you use the 
lips in salutations, they touch the forehead and the cheek ; 
your house looks outwards, their house looks inwards ; you 
go out to take a walk, they go up to enjoy the fresh air ; you 
drain youi' land, they sigh for water ; you bring your daugh- 
ters out, they keep their ^vives and daughters in ; youi' ladies 
go barefaced through the streets, their ladies are always 
covered ; you know and recognise your family when you see 
them in public, they cannot distinguish wife, sister, or daugh- 
ter from strangers. The veil covers and equalises all. Here 
woman is a companion, there she is a slave ; here monogamy 
prevails, there polygamy ; here the birth of a daughter is a 
blessing, there it is deemed a cui'se ; here in the family, in 
society, and in the state, the ideas of right and equality and 
freedom prevail, there those of deference, submission, and 
servitude. The son, the subject, the slave, the wife obeys ; sub- 
mission — unhesitating, unqualified submission — is the stereo- 
t}^Ded dogma of the whole eastern world. Here you are on 
the move, you are making progress ; the thousand influences 



CAUSES OF THIS DR^ESITY. 



5 



with wLicli society liere is interpenetrated and impelled 
onward, are unknown in the East. There all is still. The 
sea of Kfe is unruffled, save where four wives dwell in the 
same house, and their lord and master is from home. 

11. Seeing, then, that society in the East and society in 
the West are so different, the question occurs to every tra- 
veller and observer — ^'AATiat causes this diversity?" Let 
us attend to this question for a little. The social edifice, as 
you see it in the British isles, or among the continental 
nations, is not the result of a few simple, natural principles, 
moving right onward in clear and iminterrupted develop- 
ment ; no, it is the effect of the mightiest and most contra- 
dictory forces known to man working for ages in the bosom 
of society, each limiting and controlling its fellows, and each 
seeking for the mastery itself. In the East now, as in former 
ages, everywhere we behold single principles guiding the 
destinies, and moulding the character, of states and nations ; 
with us, on the contrary, new and unheard of forces have 
been added to those of antiquity, and the social body urged 
by all manner of ^dolent impulses, and interpenetrated with 
fresh and in^-igorating life. Consider these all removed 
from among us for a long series of ages, or you cannot even 
approximate, in your thoughts, to the true condition of the 
East. 

1st. The influence of the Fiilpit in the British isles is im- 
mense. The weekly and daily preaching of the gospel, the 
sanctification of the sabbath, the habits of church- going, 
and pastoral visitation, briug the body of the population 
into contact with the gospel. Thousands of sacred and sanc- 
tifsing influences flow from this fountain. Multitudes of 
hard and stony hearts are softened and subdued by divine 
grace ; and when this is not the case, the individually unap- 



6 



THE PULPIT THE PRESS. 



preciated influences of truth, are manifested, in a general and 
external way, by eleyating the public morality of the land. 
Christianity is, in fact, a living principle with you. It enters 
into the life of the nation, working its way through, the mass ; 
correcting, ameliorating, consecrating everything it touches, 
and shedding its heavenly radiance over every estate of man, 
from the deep foundations of the multitude up to the gilded 
pinnacles of royalty itself. In the East we have none of this. 
The overwhelming majority are not Christian, are decidedly 
and mortally opposed to Cbristianity, and deem no conduct 
too scornful, and no treatment too vile and ignominious, for 
the Christian dogs. Among the Christians themselves, the 
gospel is not preached. I mean not merely our old gospel of 
free grace, and justif}Tng faith, and redeeming love ; I mean, 
there is no preaching at all. The priests are ignorant of 
ever}i;hing save to baptise the children and bmy the dead. 
Only one Greek priest in Damascus attempts to preach ; only 
three sermons are preached annually in the cathedral church, 
of that city, and even these are bad ones. The teaching 
the peoj)le is no part of the gospel ; the renewal of the nature 
of man, the o£B.ces of the great Quickener, are neither kno^vn, 
believed, nor preached. What would London, Edinburgh, 
and Dublin become, in the course of ages, if only three 
wretched sermons were delivered annually in their cathedral 
churches ? 

2nd. You hare also the Press, This is a mighty power. 
The daily and weekly papers pervade the whole land. The 
monthKes, quarterlies, and annuals, that in thousands and 
tens of thousands flow from that teeming fountain, stir up 
the dormant faculties to thought, and augment, while they 
guide, the restless activities of the nation. This is unknown 
in the East. The Arabic language is spoken by sixty mil- 
lions of the haman race, and there is at this time of the day 



THE BAR. 



7 



neither a daily, weekly, montlily, nor quarterly jonrnal in 
that rich, and noble dialect. What a field there is here for 
the benevolence of British Christians. Let a number of 
generous and Christian men unite to establish a weekly jour- 
nal in this language for the eastern world ; let it embrace 
the whole circle of Chambers', mth the addition of a fer^ad 
Christianity, and from Malta, as the centre, let it circulate, 
free of expense, to the utmost bounds of the East. Thus 
would you open a channel for faith and ci^nlisation into the 
heart and life of the Orient, and, at the same time, confer 
the blessings of knowledge upon ignorant millions of your 
fellow- creatures . 

3rd. TJie Bar in England contributes, not a Kttle, to the 
formation of the national character. The debates in the great 
council of the nation, when the laws are made or altered, are 
watched with intense anxiety, by the public. In the making of 
the laws, and in the courts of justice, where they are executed, 
the greatest minds of the nation encoimter each other in keen, 
but ennobling, controversy. This man is praised, that man 
is detested ; the public are interested, and an impidse is com- 
municated to the popular feeling. There is no such thing in 
the East. The law is the will of the Sidtan ; the execution 
of law is according to the good sense of the judge. The 
cadi sits, like a tailor, in the corner of the court of justice ; 
the mufti, with the Koran in his hand, sits by his side ; the 
plaintiff kneels, and states his case ; the witnesses are sworn, 
and give their evidence ; the judge, or cadi, delivers the sen- 
tence; and the executioner stands in court, ready to carry it 
out on the spot. There is no jury, there is no arguing of 
the case ; no impertinent questions are permitted on the part 
of inquisitive advocates to disturb the tranquillity of the 
judge. If he be a good and upright man, he decides accord- 
ing to the principles of common sense and natu.ral equity ; 



8 



MEANS OF COMMUNICATION. 



and tlie administratioii of justice has the advantages of being 
cheap, speedy, and irresistible : if, on the other hand, as is 
generally the case, the judge be corrupt, then the decision 
wdll depend on the value of the presents. Among the Be- 
daween of the desert the process may be still speedier. 

Jacob, is that your donkey?" " Yes, O judge, it is mine." 
"Joseph, is that your donkey?" " Yes, 0 sheich, it is indeed 
mine." " Executioner, come quickly, and give each of them 
fifty on the bare back, for bringing an animal here without 
knowing to whom it belongs, and in the meantime keep the 
donkey for me." 

4th. In England your Means of Communication with one 
another, and ^^ith the whole world, are easy and rapid. The 
land is intersected with roads. In the East, roads for wheeled 
vehicles are miknown ; the footman, the donkey, or the 
mule, must carry your letters. The camel is your ship 
through the desert sands, and everj^thing proceeds in slow, 
solemn, oriental style. You wish to cross the Lebanon, from 
Beyrout to Damascus, the distance is about fifty miles, as the 
crow flies ; you send for the muleteers, with whom you must 
smoke a few pipes ; then spend a few houi'S in concluding the 
bargain ; then spend a day or two in preparation ; then be 
detained a day longer, by some unforeseen circumstance on 
the part of the muleteers, which never fails to take place ; 
then spend three days on the journey, and at last find your- 
self safe in the city of Eliezer. In England you step into 
a train, and your journey is over in five or six hours. 
Japheth, the EnJargcr, true to his character and the divine 
promise (Gen. ix. 27), obtains the supremacy over his 
brethren. God lias enlarged the enlarger, J^H)^^ □Nl'^J*^ jIH)'' 
tents of the long-favoured Shem are his possession, and Ham 
is his servant. Even the heathen version is instructive — 



UNION SOCIETIES. 



9 



" Audax omnia perpeti 
Gens bumana ruit per vetitum uefas ; 
Audax lapeti genus 
Ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit !" 

5tli. In England, you act upon the principle that Union is 
strength. Your land is filled with societies, clubs, corpora- 
tions of every name, and for every conceivable object. The 
principles of benevolence and Christian charity express them- 
selves in manifold societies and institutions in behalf of the 
poor and the unemployed at home and abroad ; one society 
meets, and a road is made or a bridge is built ; another com- 
pany meets, and a railway is undertaken ; a literary society 
treats you to a disquisition on taste, in which both Alison 
and Longinus are controverted ; the venerable antiquarians 
meet monthly to discuss old coins and Egyptian hieroglyphics ; 
the arts and sciences have their institutions and assemblies. 
See, there is a geological meeting, convened to discuss the 
antiquity, if not the eternity, of the earth ; yonder the 
agricultural chemists are analysing soils and manures in 
order to diminish human labour, and find a royal road 
to the eatables of the earth. The various trades have their 
meetings ; the merchants, the mechanicians, and the farmers, 
have their meetings ; the lawyers, the parliamentarians, and 
the clergy, have their meetings. There was a meeting the 
other day of the thieves of London, in which the young 
thief of twenty, who had been nineteen times in prison, 
was cheered and applauded to the echo ! In the Orient 
you have none of this activity ; all is quiet and tranquil ; 
no friendly meetings, no hot debates about religion, law, or 
politics ; no searching into nature to explore her hidden 
recesses ; no rising up into the condition of reflecting, self- 
acting, responsible men. As the government is the great 
plunderer, so must it be the great improver ; if the pasha 



10 



RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL LIBERTY. 



mends not the roads, they remain impassable ; if the pasha 
builds not the bridge, we can go round by the fords ; no man 
pays the least attention to anything but his own immediate 
wants. Conceive, then, that all these meetings, societies, 
and institutions were suppressed throughout the British 
empire, and kept in total suppression for a thousand years, 
what would be the state of England ? 

6th. In England you enjoy religious and political Liberty, 
and the exercise of these sacred and hereditary rights, 
throws over the human character a bright and ennobling 
lustre. I do not attribute much to the forms of government, 
knowing well that the breath of liberty and self-confidence 
in the people can, and does, mitigate the ferocity, and all 
but humanise the actings, of the beasts which the prophet 
saw rising one after another out of the sea (Dan. vii. 1, &c.) ; 
while on the other hand, the spirit of tyranny and oppression 
clothing itself, like Satan, in the forms of liberty and popular 
attractiveness, can degrade and bestialise both the human 
and the divine. The religious and the political went hand 
in hand in the former great struggles in which your fathers, 
planting in blood and tears the oak of liberty, under which 
you find shelter from the storm, conquered in their d}dng, 
and slew by being slain. In Germany, religious is far 
ahead of political freedom ; and in the East, as in the days 
of the false prophet, so in this nineteenth century, the 
Mohammedan that changes his religion must surely be put 
to death. The late limitations of this fundamental law of 
Islam, I shall explain in the proper place ; in the meantime, 
be assured that the Mohammedan in Aleppo, Damascus, or 
Constantinople, who changes his religion, will lose his head. 
ISTow, consider the state of things in a country like Syria, 
where the government stands clothed in its attributes of 
prescriptive and undefined terrors ; and where the subjects. 



RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL LIBERTY. 



11 



without means of union, without hope of successful opposition, 
stand each in his single personality, to hear and obey the 
will of their master. Despotism is not tyranny. I admit 
it. Many oriental emperors have been tyrants, they have been 
all despots ; but consider, I beseech you, how easily the one 
merges into the other, and you will come to the conclusion 
that terror is the only principle of government, and fear the 
only principle of obedience in the people. The two parties 
are the governing and the governed. There are no hereditary 
nobles to intermediate between the sovereign and the subject ; 
no popular institutions around which the discomfited people 
could rally ; no provincial or national parliaments to guard 
the rights of nations, and make their voice be heard before 
emperors and kings. When Dr. Wilson and I called upon 
the governor of Sychem, on behalf of the plundered and 
persecuted Jews, he said, stroking his beard and swearing by 
it, that the religious liberty which we had described was the 
very principle of the Turkish empire. ^^Tien I lived in 
Damascus, some wits or wags stuck up upon the wall of the 
city a few puns reflecting on the government. They were 
banished from the country. Banish, then, from your thoughts, 
the ideas of liberty ; suppress throughout the empire every 
word and syllable of free opinion, and keep it so for a 
thousand years, and you have in Britain the type of Turkey. 
These, then, are important difierences. ThQ jniljnt, t^iQ press y 
the bar, steam, societies, and civil and rehgious liherty, have ex- 
ercised, and do exercise, a powerful influence in the formation of 
our national manners. You must try, therefore, in your con- 
templation of the East, to leave aside all thoughts of England 
and its glories, and enter with me at once into a new world. 

III. We are entering upon the description of a country 
which presents, both to the Christian and the man, more 



12 



PECULIARITIES OF THE LA^v^D. 



points of attraction, more objects of national contemplation, 
more events of universal history, tlian any other in the 
world. We admire what is ancient. Here we find temples 
the attractions of all travellers, the wonders of the world, 
whose origin is known only to Grod, whose very ruins fill 
the beholder with astonishment and delight ; see, yonder is 
the ancient rock stretching out into the sea, on which the 
greatest of all maritime cities stood ; the birth-place of 
Queen Dido ; the anointing cherub of Ezekiel, the conquest 
of the mad Macedonian, 

" Before whose "broad footsteps tlie Ganges was dry, 
And the mountains recoiled from the flash of his eye." 

Look northward, and behold a city described by Moses, 
Homer, and all historians, up to the late work of Dr. Wilson ; 
one of the most ancient, if not the most ancient in existence, 
leadiag us in an mibroken line to the waters of the deluge, 
and testifyiag, in its present dilapidated condition, to the 
verity of God's unchangeable word. J erusalem unites, in a 
continuous history, the immense period from Melchisedec, 
the priest of the most high God, to Gobat, the priest and 
bishop of the church of England. Damascus reminds you 
of Abraham and Eliezer, while the cedars of Lebanon, the 
twelve patriarchs of the forest riven by many a thunderbolt, 
and shaken by the tempests of these Alpuie regions, lift up 
their giant arms to heaven in undecajHbig ^^igour, and awaken 
in you ideas of remote and hoary antiquity. But 

2nd. We are formed to love and admii^e Literature. Come 
with me, then, to the beautiful and beautifully situated city 
Sychar, where the Sa^dour preached the gospel to the 
woman of Samaria ; where the Christian philosopher, Justin 
Martyr, was born ; and see the pentateuch of the only 
Samaritan colony that exists on the earth. There you see the 



ANTIQUITIES — LITERATURE. 



13 



divine origin of human literature ; these are the old Hebrew 
letters, used before the captivity, in which the ten command- 
ments were written by the finger of God himself. Or if you 
cannot believe that during the seventy years the letters were 
changed, then open your bibles, and in the beautiful square 
characters of the Hebrew, you behold at once the first letters 
and the noblest literature in the world. The most venerable 
of historians is Moses ; for sacred lyrics, the world has never 
seen, and is not lil^ely soon to see, another David ; for sub- 
limity of style, and mastery of eloquence, we may fairly set 
up Paul and Isaiah and Job, against all the nations of the 
earth ; the Songs of Sappho, when compared with those of 
Miriam, Deborah, EKsabeth and Mary, are as earth to heaven ; 
while tenderness and divine love have never breathed so 
much of heaven as in the descriptions of the Apostle John. 
There are only three historical nations — the Jews, the Greeks, 
and the Eomans. The Eomans are to the Greeks, what 
matter is to spirit. The Roman history is the development 
of materialism, the progress of all- subduing force, the sub- 
jugation of mankind to the dominion of the sword ; Greece 
is a great spiritualism, an opening out of mental activit}^ 
a history of the movement, ardour, subtlety, sublimity, 
depravity of the human mind — a wonderful unfolding of 
the universal and all-jDorvading dominion of thought. 
Judaism leads us at once to the fountain-head of being — the 
glorious and inefiable source of the created imiverse. In the 
Homan nation you have the operations of power ; in the 
Grecian, developments of genius ; in the Jewish, the mani- 
festations of God. Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem, are the 
three centres upon the earth of the material, the mental, and 
the divine ; and from these teeming fountains have flowed 
almost all the impulsive movements by which the stagnant 
waters of himian life have been agitated or purified since 



14 



LITERATUHE. 



the beginning of tlie world. In every sense of tlie word, 
Syria is tlie most literary land in existence. The Greeks 
owe their letters to that strip of land between Lebanon and 
the sea, the ancient centre of civiKsation, Phoenicia, as the 
poet indignantly reminds their degenerate sons — 

" Ye have the letters Cadmus gave, 
They were not meant to teach a slave." 

This is the comitry illustrated by the immortal work of 
Josephus, which, if you believe Scaliger, is worthy of more 
credit, even in Roman affairs, than all the Grreek and 
Roman writers put together : here lived and laboured a 
great part of his life the sublime but erratic genius, the 
illustrious Origen Adamantius, whose influence upon the 
church, for good or for evil, was greater than that of any 
other man, before or after him, save Paul and Augustine. 
Here lived and laboured, fasted and argued, the great 
church- father Jerome, the most crabbed and the most 
learned of men, whose commentaries and translations of 
the Scriptures called the Yulgate, have built up for him 
a stable and enduring fame. But time would fail me to 
enumerate the heroes who fought, the martyrs who bled, the 
writers who illustrated, the pilgrims who visited, the con- 
querors who plundered, this land of literary and religious 
celebrity. This is the land <and Jerusalem is the spot, the 
only land and the only spot on the earth, where you hear 
in a morning twenty-five or thirty languages spoken in 
the streets. This is the land, and the only land in the 
world, sacred to the three great religions, the Jewish, the 
Mohammedan, and the Christian, by which the three noblest 
languages known to mankind have been consecrated to 
the service of the Deity. But 

3rd. Consider the Wars of Palestine. I hope you admire 



WAHS. 



15 



neither warfare nor the principles of our nature from wliicli 
it springs (Jas. iv. 1) : I am persuaded that you see a greater 
glory in the civic crown for a citizen preserved, than in 
the blood-stained diadem, attained through armies' victories, 
and all the pomp of war. Still, we must follow with interest, 
if not with approbation, the footsteps of the conqueror or 
destroyer, as he passes in blood and fire through the land. 
Tell me then, if you can, what battles have been fought in 
this region, during the interval between Joshua of old, 
and Ibrahim Pasha in our own times, who both took up 
the same military position on the Jordan. The Pharaohs 
and the Nebuchadnezzars, the Emperors and the Caliphs, 
the Ommiades and the Abassades, have played the game of 
empire through long centuries of bloody controversy on this 
devoted land. Here Alexander and INapoleon fought for the 
dominion of the East. Acca being conquered," said I^apoleon, 
"Damascus presents me its keys. I shall march upon the 
Euphrates, reach Constantinople with large masses of 
soldiery, found a new empire in the East, and fix my name 
in the records of posterity." Here the war of opinion, ac- 
cording to Edmund Burke the most awful kind of warfare — 
the war of contending religions — raged in all bygone ages, 
and rages still in the fullest, deadliest hate ! Heathenism 
and Judaism fought for life and death around Jerusalem ; 
Mohammedanism and Christianity encountered each other 
in the long wars of the Crusades ; Soliman the Magnificent 
and our Pichard of England measured swords at the sea 
of Galilee for the tomb of Christ ; and the Druses and the 
Christians of Mount Lebanon seem to prove that the natural 
state of man is war. Here we have the battle-field of the 
East and the West, not only in a physical, but also in a 
moral, sense. All the sects of the Christians, east and west ; 
all the sects of the Jews and the Mohammedans, meet in 



16 



LAND OF THE BIBLE. 



the Holy Land and in tlie holy city of Jerusalem, to 
discuss and arrange their differences in the Mosque of 
Omar, or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ! 

4th. This country, whose manners and customs we intend 
to describe, is emphatically the land of the Bible. We 
are about to make an excursion to the metropolis of 
Christianity, the spiritual birth-place of the great family 
of God, where the elder Brother of the church, the adorable 
Redeemer of man, lived and died and rose again. Every 
step is sacred ground, every mountain has a voice, every 
valley has a tradition, every rock has an echo, every ruin 
has a prophecy, every custom has a meaning, to interest 
the Christian, illustrate the Scriptures, and verify the 
announcements of prophecy. Nor is the land unknown. 
The divine psalmody, used in our churches, has made us, 
from youth to manhood, familiar with the facts, events, 
and localities of the country ; while the preaching of the 
glorious gospel of the blessed God has associated inseparably 
in our hearts and convictions Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and 
Nazareth, Calvary, Gethsemane, and Mount Olivet, with all 
that we most fondly hope or firmly believe — the saving 
verities of our religion ; not the less attractive, not the less 
lovely, but the more because they are presented in the 
enamel of a Jewish nomenclature. Moses and Christ are not 
opposites ; they are contemplated together in the Divine 
purpose ; they can no more be divided from each other, 
than the body and the spirit in a living man. You are not 
pure spirits, that you could enjoy and reahse pure, unfigured, 
unlocalised, metaphysical truth ; you are men, that is, em- 
bodied spirits, and can be most easily reached, and most 
deeply affected, by embodied truth — truth, under the limi- 
tations of time and place and person — truth audible, visible, 
and tangible ; truth under the forms of words, figures, sym- 



LAND OF THE BIBLE. 



17 



bols, and all tlie beautiful varieties of an outward and sensible 
drapery. Hence the temple, and tbe temple- service, wbicb, 
as a preparation for Christianity, were nothing else than a 
great luminous dome, through which the hopes of a coming 
deliverer shed their effulgence over the land ; hence the 
necessity of the incarnation of the Son of Grod, by which the 
glories of the invisible godhead, the fulness of his ineffable 
and ilKmitable love to mankind, have been revealed to our 
understandings, and brought home to our hearts in our own 
visible and material nature ; hence the necessity of times and 
places for prayer, and temples for visible worship, and all 
the various ordinances by which the church is preserved 
in the unity of the spirit and the bonds of peace. In this 
devout spirit, by which we seek to recognise the Creator in 
his creation, let us pass through this land of wonders, where 
the dispensations of mercy found their first outward develop- 
ments ; where heavenly voices and angel- visits cheered with 
promises and benedictions the sojourners of the earth ; where 
pardon from on high was proclaimed to the apostate, and life 
and immortality burst forth from the grave. Come then, let us 
draw water from the well of Jacob, like the woman of Samaria. 
There sat the Saviour on the well's mouth. On your right 
is Joseph's tomb ; and right before you the city of Sychar. 
Can you, without interest, behold the Sea of Galilee ; the 
waters of the Jordan, or that ancient river the river Kishon ? 

" Or if Sion Mil 
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed 
Fast by the oracle of God," 

then yonder is Jerusalem, in the weeds of her widow- 
hood, weeping over the glories of the past; Siloa still 
flows from the rock of the temple, and Mount Olivet is stiU, 
as in the days of old, to the east of Jerusalem, and all 
around are the scenes most consecrated to the Christian heart, 

c 



18 



LAND OF PROPHECY. 



most deeply associated with the doing and dying of the Son 
of God. Everything breathes the air of Scripture. The 
customs of the inhabitants are Bible customs ; their dress, 
gait, and salutations, remind you of the Bible. Their 
parabolic language, and solemn but simple forms of polite- 
ness, are quite Biblical. "^Yhile, therefore, the Bible remains 
the word of Grod, and the simier continues to drinlv from that 
living fountain, the land of Palestine can never cease to be a 
subject of the highest interest to the whole Christian world. 
But this leads me to observe — 

5th. That in this land we see, in a very special manner, the 
fulfilment of the Tropliecies. This is of vital importance in the 
Christian argument, and cannot fail to interest us, and that 
in the same measure in which we long for the conversion of 
the unbelieving and the triumphs of the gospel. The testimony 
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. xix. 10). The historian 
dwells upon eifects and their causes, the preacher opens up to 
the people the revealed will of God, the prophet takes you 
behind the scene, shows j^ou tlie mighty hand that moves and 
guides events, and effecting here and there an opening in the 
cloudy heavens gives you a faint idea, an inkling, of the 
ripening purpose of the Divine Pi^edestinator. What a noble 
position prophecy gives us, from which to contemplate the 
events of history as they pass along the stream of time into 
the ocean of eternity ! What an ennobling feeling that we are 
brought into contact, not merely with the work, but with the 
worker, and that our dwarfish conceptions are enlarged and 
enlightened by the belief of an all-comprehending, all- 
conquering, purpose of Divine love ! Come with me to Tabor, 
forget for the time Barak and his band of patriots, the wgins 
of Israel and their songs of triumph. It is the mount of trans- 
figuration, it is the hiU of prophecy, on which, in company 
with the glorified Redeemer, the centre and sustaining head of 



LAND OF PROPHECY. 



19 



all the purpose of God, we read in tlie liglit whicli surrounds 
him the ruins of empires, tiie progress of the events of time, 
the issues of the eternal world. These ruined cities, this 
withered and blighted land, the scattered people to whom, by 
covenant- right, it belongs, these conquerors and plunderers 
that eat up, like the locusts, eYexj green thing ; these, and 
many other such-like occurrences, are the clear fulfilments of 
prophecy — the writing out to the eye in letters of fiery desola- 
tion what Gfod had long before announced to the ear of the 
impenitent. This is not the place to trace out the fulfilment 
of particular prophecies. "V^Hien we come to the scene of the 
prophecy we shall then consider the fulfilment. In the mean- 
time remember, that the principle of prophecy is implanted 
by the God of heaven in the human breast. Hope lifts us 
above the world of sublunary things, and indicates longings 
that can be satisfied only in the Idngdom of God. Hope makes 
the demand, and prophecy furnishes the supply. Hope turns 
the eye of man upwards, prophecy gives the light from heaven 
to meet and satisfy it. We can as easily cease to remember 
as cease to hojje. History is the food of memory, prophecy is 
the food of hope ; prophecy leads us to the contemplation of 
an acting, working, living God, the orderer of the nations, the 
provider and guardian of the hiunan race. It annihilates 
atheism and the sonmolent deity, who, thej say, sits behind 
the elements in the repose of imperturbable tranquillity, be- 
holding with indifference (Mat. x. 29) the creatures that he 
has made ! It brings you in contact with a personal God, 
working actively in the creation ; a holy God, rewarding the 
obedient and punishing the transgressor ; and in the midst of 
all conceivable varieties of agents, events, and operations, and 
in spite of all conceivable impediments and oppositions from 
sin and Satan, and the will of man, bringing out the steady 
and harmonious accompKshment of his purpose of grace and 

c 2 



20 



LAND OF PROMISE. 



love in the Mediator. (Eph. i. 10.) Prophecy embraces tlie 
two great classes, the sheep and the goats, the church and the 
world ; it takes for granted, therefore, the principles on which 
these communities are founded. Predestination is the founda- 
tion of Providence, without which prophecy is inconceivable ; 
election is the basis of a church, without w^hich the fulfilment 
of the prophetic purpose is impossible. Thus, in tracing the 
fulfilment of prophecy in our progress through the land, we 
are entering upon a field of boundless extent and magnificence 
— the character of God, the author of it — the history of the 
church and the world, the objects of it — the method, literal or 
figurative, of the accomplishment of it — and the manifestation 
of the Divine character, the end of it. 

6th. But permit me to lead you for a moment to the Promises 
of Grod, respecting the land and the people to whom it belongs. 
The Lord makes the wrath of man to praise him, and by the 
fulfilment of his threatenings against sin and the sinner, 
confirms and consolidates the evidence of our holy religion. 
He is faithful to his promises as well as his threatenings, and 
in the ruins of desolated cities and decayed monuments of 
former greatness, we should anticipate with gladness the 
reversion of the curse, and the conversion and restoration of 
the seed of Abraham. 

1. The land shall be blessed. The withered valleys shall 
be renewed with fertility, and filled with inhabitants ; the 
ruined cities of Judah shall be rebuilt, and the whole country 
made like "the garden of the Lord." — Is. xxix. 17 ; xxxv. 
1, 2, 7, 9; li. 3, 16; liv. 11—13; Iv. 12, 13; Ix. 13, 17; 
Ixv. 35. Ez. xxxiv. 26, 27; xxxvi. 36. Joel iii. 18. Amos 
ix. 13, 14. 

2. The Jewish nation shall be restored to their own land. 
See the following scriptures, with many others: — Is. xi. 11; 
xxvii. 12, 13; xliii. 5, 6; xlix. 11, 12; Ix. 4. Jer. iii. 18; 



LAND OF A PECULIAR PEOPLE. 



21 



xvi. 14, 15 ; xxiii. 3 ; xxx. 10 ; xxxi. 7, 8, 10 ; xxxii. 37. 
Hos. xi. 10. Zeph. iii. 10. Zech. yiii. 7, 8 ; x. 8—10. 

"Let us bear in mind, therefore, that if in our progress 
through the land, we meet on every side the ruins of the 
country, and the evidences of the curse, the time is coming, 
the time full of hope and benediction to Jew and Gentile ; 
the time of the restitution of all things spoken of by all the 
holy prophets, since the world began (Acts xiii. 21) ; the 
time when the long divided nation shall become one stick 
(Ez. xxxvii. 19, 20), and the Jew and Grentile one fold 
(Is. Ix. ; Rom. xi.), and the glory of the Lord shall fiU the 
whole earth like the waters of the sea (Is. xi. 9). Yes, better 
times are coming for the poor persecuted Jew. It is not in 
vain that they have been kept a distinct people for so many 
ages, under circumstances when their amalgamation was 
natural, their separate existence a providential miracle. They 
shall venerate the name which they now reject ; they shall 
look upon Him whom they have pierced, and mourn ; and 
all their sorrows be forgotten, in the fulness of peace and 
joy. The hidden purpose of Divine love has preserved them 
hitherto, and seems to be fitting them for acting a con- 
spicuous part in the events that are to usher in the King and 
the kingdom of righteousness and peace. They form a kind 
of omnipresent agency over the earth ; they speak all the lan- 
guages of the world ; they are possessed of great wealth ; 
they are fortified by the endurance of evil, and fitted for the 
accomplishment of some mighty purpose ; and the promises of 
the holy Scriptures seem in many places to connect with them 
the blessing of the Gentile nations. Ps. Ixvii. 2, 4, 7 ; Is.xxv. 
6—8; xxvii. 6; Ix. 3; Ixvi. 19. Acts iii. 19—21. 
Rom. xi. 12, 15, &c. 



RESTORED ISRAEL. 



SONG OF EESTOKED ISKAEL. Is. xii. 

My God, T will praise thee, the storms of the past 
Have reposed in a sunshine of glory at last ; 
My salvation thou art, I will trust without fear, 
The heart must be joyful when Jesus is near. 

With joy will I bask in the light of His face. 
With joy will I draw from the wells of His grace ; 
I would yield to thy Spii'it to lead me around 
The wide ocean of love, without bottom or bound. 

0 praise ye His name, spread His glory abroad ! 
Declare to the heathen the grace of our God ; 
Long ages of sin could not alter his mind, 
Nor diminish the force of His love to mankind. 

Sing, sing to the Lord ! for the acts of His might 
Are inscribed on the earth with a pencil of light ; 
And the nations, long sunk in the slumber of death, 
Are wanned into life, by His quickening breath. 

But louder than all, let Jerusalem sing, 
To the Lord that redeemed her, the crucified King; 
For there shall He sit on His glorious throne. 
Even there where it pleased Him for sin to atone. 



LEBANON. 



23 



CHAPTER II. 

LEBANON. 

I. Illustrations of Scripture : — 1st. General Observations ; 2nd. The House of 
the Forest of Lebanon ; 3rcl. The Cedars of Lebanon ; 4th. The Sides of 
Lebanon ; 5th. The Eoots of Lebanon ; 6th. The Violence of Lebanon ; 
7th. The Glory of Lebanon; 8th. "The Skin of the Teeth" illustrated. 
II. The Inhabitants of Lebanon: — First, The Maronites; Second, The 
Greeks. The Two Parties compared ; 1st. As to Literature ; 2nd. As to Se- 
cular Employments ; 3rd. As to Preparatory Training ; -Ith. As to Character 
in general. Monastic Institutions considered; 1st. As to unnatural Crimes ; 
2nd. As to Piety and Charity ; 3rd. In Keference to Civilisation. III. The 
Druses of Mount Lebanon particularly described. IV. Various j)arti- 
culars : 1st. The Roads ; 2nd. The Terraces ; 3rd. The Animals ; 4th. 
The Villages and Houses. 

I. Illustrations of Bcripture. 1st. We have now passed the land 
of the Pharaohs, touched at the city of Alexander, surveyed 
Pompey's pillar and Cleopatra's needle, examined the docks 
of Mehemet Ali, the second historic man of the age (Wel- 
lington being the first), got a sight of the famous dogs, 
donkeys, and donkey-boys of Egypt, and here we are upon 
this beautiful sea, the great sea, ^nJ)n D^H of the Hebrews, 
the most celebrated in the world, around whose shores have 
been clustered the great monarchies and repubKcs of an- 
tiquity. If the genius of the Mediterranean had a voice, 
what a tale it could bring us from the hoary deep. How 
peaceful are these waters ! 

" There shrinks no ebb in this tideless sea, 
That ceaseless rolls eternally." 



24 



LEBANON. 



Be done witli your sea-sickness, my brother. The morning 
breaks forth, in oriental splendour. Tyre and Sidon are far 
behind us, and Lebanon rises before us baptised in the 
radiance of the morning sun. How lovely is this scene. Is 
there anything wanting to make it one of the most expand- 
ing and spirit-stirring on the earth ? Cyprus, the symbol of 
beauty and guilt, is behind you ; Bey rout, a thriving to^^Ti 
of 20,000 inhabitants, surrounded with mulberry gardens, 
lies before you ; the sea, tranquil and beautiful, the mirror 
of a cerulean sky, clasps mountain, bay, and island, in its 
wide embrace ; and far as the eye can reach in the distance 
lies Lebanon, like a giant, disporting his limbs in the fresh- 
ness of the morning, and rising, height above height, some 
10,000 feet up to the snowy summits of Mechmel; while the 
sun, the Syrian sun, chasing away the darkness of the night, 

" Tricks his orient beams, 
And flames in the forehead of the morning sky." 

All elements are combined in this stupendous Alpine vision. 
These summits are barren, desolate, and irreclaimable ; there 
is no vegetation, no life ; not a blade of grass, not a tree, 
however stunted, relieves the eye as it wanders over the in- 
finite varieties of stern and rugged desolation. Look you 
down into these valleys, and mark the contrast. The morn- 
ing gale is scented with fragrance ; the terraces are teeming 
with all sorts of fruit trees — the vine, the pomegranate, the 
olive, and the fig. Wells are everywhere bursting forth 
from the limestone rock ; streams are, in thousands, flowing 
down the valleys from the dissolving snow. These gorges 
are full of life. Stand on that height, and comit, within the 
range of your vision, some forty villages. There grows the 
cedar, forty- seven feet in circimaference, and the thistle be- 
side it, as in the days of old. All varieties meet and over- 



ITS SCENERY. 



25 



power you in this region — ^wildness and cultivation, barren 
rocks and smiling vales, the tender and the terrible, beauty 
and deformity, life and death, all that can attract and all 
that can terrify, and these in all conceivable varieties of 
form and existence. "VYood and water, sea and land, moun- 
tain and valley, sun and sky, all that is majestically great, 
harmoniously blended with all that is elegantly little in this 
panoramic vision of the glorious workmanship of God. 
Hervey found food for meditation in the tombs ; Marius, in 
the ruins of Carthage ; Gibbon, in the ruins of Rome ; and 
Yolney in the ruins of empires ; and as we survey these 
regions, may we not say, with Young — ''And if a God 
there be, that God how great." Or with the poet of the 
" Seasons" — 

" These, as they change, Almighty Father, these 
Are but the varied God ; the rolling year 
Is full of Thee." 

Or with the Christian poet, Cowper, in a far higher and 
nobler sense — "My Father made them all." Or with the 
almost pantheistic Pope — 

" Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees, 
Lives through all life, extends through all extent. 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent." 

Or with David (Ps. cxlviii.), in the fulness of adoring praise — 

Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens ; - 
praise him in the heights ; praise ye him all his angels ; 
praise him all his hosts ; praise him sun and moon ; praise 



26 



HOUSE AND CEDARS OF LEBANON. 



him all ye stars of Kglit ; praise liini ye heavens of heavens, 
and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise 
the name of the Lord : for he commanded, and they were 
created. He hath also established them for ever and ever : 
he hath made a decree which shall not pass. Praise the 
Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps : Fire and 
hail ; snow and vapours ; stormy wind fulfilling his word : 
Mountains, and aU hills ; fruitful trees, and aU cedars : 
Beasts, and all cattle ; creeping things, and fl}H[ng fowl : 
Kings of the earth, and all people, princes, and all judges of 
the earth : Both young men and maidens ; old men and 
children ; Let them praise the name of the Lord ; for his 
name alone is excellent ; his glory is above the earth and 
heaven. He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise 
of his saints ; even of the children of Israel, a people 
near imto him. Praise ye the Lord." 

2nd. JT'I? The Bouse of the Forest of Lebanon. 

(1 Kings vii. 2.) — This house was built by Solomon, not in the 
Lebanon, but in J erusalem ; the materials of the building were 
brought from the cedar groves of Lebanon, and hence the 
name. We speak in like manner of the East India House, 
Compan}", &c. 

3rd. Ii:)!^ ""ni^, The Cedars of Lebanon. — The xirabs caU 
them jjU>3jj^, and refer to them as the wonders of the 
vegetable world. These celebrated trees are about 6,000 feet 
above the level of the sea, are scattered over a sm^face of 
two or three acres, and are now only twelve in number. We 
measured them with the greatest care, and found them to be 
of the foUoAving dimensions ; 40 ft., 38 ft., 47 ft., 18 ft. 4 in., 
30 ft., 22 ft. 6 in., 28 ft., 25 ft. 3 in., 33 ft. 6 in., 29 ft. 6 in., 
22 ft., 29 ft. 9 in. ; the largest is, therefore, forty- seven feet 
round the base, or very nearly sixteen feet in diameter. The 
age of these trees is unknown. That they reach back to a 



CEDARS OF LEBANON. 



27 



hoary antiquity, is manifest from tlieir appearance, their 
size, and the known ages of trees in general. The English 
oak attains the age of 1,000, and occasionally 1,500 years ; 
the yew tree lives from 2,000 to 3,000 years. There is a 
tree, in Senegal, and other parts of Africa, of the Boabad 
kind (Adamsoniana digitata) thirty- six feet in diameter, and 
beKeved, by scientific men of the highest acquirements, to be 
5,232 years old. Henslow asserts that the American Tax- 
odium flourishes from 4,000 to 6,000 years ; and M. Be Can- 
dolle, a high botanical name, asserts that there are trees in 
Mexico which have existed from the foundation of the world. 
Shoidd this awful longevity be found consistent with the 
Mosaic account of the deluge, then woidd the words of the 

Psalm civ. 16, ^^D"^ n^hi mn^ '*iv ^v:^^- 

" The trees of God are full of sap, 
The cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted," 

admit of a literal meaning. 

These noble trees are used by the prophets very often in a 
symbolical sense, and connected in many ways, both with the 
believer, and the believer's God. Believe in God ; cast in 
thy lot with the Son of God, and be not afraid of all the 
power of the enemies of the soul. "The righteous shall 
flourish like the palm-tree ; he shall grow like a cedar in 
Lebanon.'' (Psalm xcii. 12.) These cedars have deep foun- 
dations — 

" Moored in the rifted rock, 
Proof to the tempest shock," 

they raise up their rugged arms in defiance of the storm. 
So is it with thee, brother ; the Lord is thy strength, and 
underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Perhaps thou art 
a haughty, high-minded, proud, God-defiant scorner ? Then 



28 CEDAHS OF LEBANON. 

the cedar is a type of thee. Behold these cedar groves, these 
patriarchs of the forest. How deep their roots. How strong, 
rugged, massive their branches, how beautiful and glorious the 
vault of their circumambient foliage. *'But the day of the Lord 
shall be upon the cedars of Lebanon " (Is. ii. 13) ; and the 
mighty ones shall fall (Zee. xi. 2) before the hand of the spoiler ; 
and the voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars, the Lord breaketh 
the cedars of Lebanon (Ps. xxix. 5). You must break and sink 
before his power. No man may contend with his Maker. Listen 
to the Almighty Thimderer, if ye will not welcome redeeming 
love, and make ready to depart (Matt. xxv. 41), for the hour 
of His judgment is come. The cedar is joined with the vine 
(Ps. Ixxx. 10), to designate and symbolise the church. This 
vine spread forth its branches like the cedars, and covered the 
hills Avith its shadow. This is a noble union ; the sap and 
fruit of the vine joined to the height and strength of the 
cedar. Here are the two aspects of the church, the earthly 
and the heavenly ; she presents the cedar's firmness to resist 
the storms of the world ; she presents the mellowed fruit of 
the vine to the Sun of Righteousness in heaven. The wood 
of the tabernacle was shittim (Ex. xxvi. 15), a frail and 
perishable substance ; fit emblem of our wilderness- state, 
while, like Abraham, we are looking for a city that hath 
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Cedar- wood 
was used in the temple. It was hewn down in these groves 
of Lebanon, brought probably to the sea by the i^KJ\ j^, the 
Dog-Piver, and landed at Joppa, the sea-port of Jerusalem. 
It is the hardest, most incorruptible, wood known, and, there- 
fore, a fit type of the fixed state, the temple condition, of the 
church, in which the shittim- wood jdelds to the cedar, the 
tabernacle to the temple, and mortality is to be swallowed up 
of Hfe. 

4th. p:in^ '^n:n\ The Sides of Lebanon (Is. xxxvii. 24).— 



" SIDES '* AND " ROOTS " OF LEBANON. 



29 



You are not to conceive of Lebanon as a solitary and detached 
hill or mount. It is the name given to the highest summits 
of a great range running for fifty miles along the sea shore. 
Here you have innumerable gorges and valleys of all shapes 
and sizes. The Assyrian (Is. xxxvii. 24) threatens to ascend 
these slopes, and cut down the tall cedars and the choice fir 
trees thereof. The figure is striking and grand. He is not 
content with the cities and the plains. Sennacherib ascends 
like an overflowing inundation, overwhelming Jerusalem, 
Carmel, Tabor, and Hermon in its course ; thence rolling its 
surging waters up the sides of the mighty Lebanon until 
the very cedars are submerged under the conquering deluge. 
The poet has thought fit to change the structure of the 
figure, but he has not improved it — 

" The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, 
And his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold ; 
And the sheen of his spears was like stars on the lea, 
As the hlue wave rolled nightly on deep Galilee." 

5th. The djdng patriarch Isaac was pleased with the smell 
of his son Jacob's garments, and said it was like the smell of 
a field which the Lord had blessed (Gen. xxvii. 27). This 
smell is particularly rich and agreeable on Mount Lebanon, 
where fruit trees are so abundant. Stand of a morning in 
the spring season in the village of Eitat, or Einanoob, or 
Abeih, in which I lived, and look down into the valleys that 
stretch around you. The vine orchards are unfolding their 
tender buds ; the first early blossoms of the mishmush (apricot) 
are over; the olive gardens are radiant with life and beauty; 
the mulberry is ia bloom ; the woods are vocal, the air is 
balm ; the heart, full of joyous life, responds to the sym- 
pathies that pervade the world ; and the morning gale, as it 
wends its way through the valleys gathering contributions of 



30 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 



sweet incense from all sides, salutes your grateful sense witli 
the odours of the spring. Then read and understand the 
words of Solomon (Song iv. 11): "Thy lips, 0 my spouse, 
drop as the honeycomh ; honey and milk are under thy 
tongue ; and the smell of thy garments is as the smell of 
Lebanon." Compare Hos. xiv. 7. Or are you, as I have 
often been, warm and weary, and almost dying of thirst ; 
your stock of sun- warmed water is ended, the very last drop 
wrung out of your bottles for the ladies, and the bottles 
themselves are dry and musty. These bottles are not made 
of glass, but of sheepskin, the identical Dli^^ of the 
Gibeonites (Jos. ix. 4) ; the of the Arabs ; the aaKog 

of the IS^ew Testament (Matt. ix. 17 ; Mark ii. 22 ; Luke 
V. 37, 38) ; and the aaicoj £v aiycuo, the goatskin bottle of 
old (Homer, II. iii. lin. 247). How refreshing are these wells 
of living water — these streams from Lebanon, of which the 
wise man speaks ! (Song iv. 15.) Water is the great deside- 
ratum in the East, and there is hardly a spot of soil conceivable, 
except it were altogether rock, which the eastern sun and a 
well of water would not turn into a fruitful field. In 
Lebanon there is great abundance of water, not rivers only, 
but wells and streams. The streams flow from the dissolving 
snows, and show themselves descending over the rocks or 
running through the terraces on the side of the mountain, 
glancing in the sun and through the trees like threads of 
silver. The springs flow from the limestone rocks, and are 
surromided by the populous and romantic villages of the 
Maronites and the Druses. Or perhaps, being thirsty, you 
would rather have wine than water ? Then come into one of 
these monasteries, and realise the excellence of the wine of 
Lebanon (Hos. xiv. 7). There is no good wine here but in 
the convents. The wines of Syria are, generally speaking, 
black and white; on the Lebanon they have three kinds — 



VIOLENCE OF LEBANON. 



31 



tlie hlach, the tvhite, and the golden. The vino d'ora is 
exquisite. 

In Hosea xiv. 4 — 7, the Lord graciously promised to bless 
and restore his afflicted people, to heal their backsliding, 
and to love them freely. As the dew (^t^) descends gently 
and quietly from heaven, so shall my grace open the dark, 
cold heart of Israel, as it did Lydia's in the days of old. " He 
shaU rise up, (PTJIi^lti^D) like the KLy," a fair and beautiful 
object of admiration among the nations ; he shall strike his 
roots (Vti^lti^ ^'') like the Lebanon," deep and immoveable, 
and fiU the face of the world with fruit (Isaiah xxvii. 6) ; "he 
shall spread his branches like the olive tree, and his smell 
shall be as the smell of Lebanon." In this fine description and 
noble promise, which we can best realise among the Alpine 
masses of Lebanon, we have many glorious prophetic truths 
brought before us. 1. That the mercy of God is not ex- 
hausted by all their sins. He will yet choose Israel. 2. He 
will restore them to their o^vn land. 3. They shall become 
a great and mighty nation. 4. They shall be a source of 
blessing to the surrounding nations. 

6th. DDH, The violence of Lebanon (Rah. ii. 17), 

seems to refer to the character of the inhabitants. Lebanon 
has been the seat of liberty, violence, contention, and desolat- 
ing fury since time immemorial. The remnants which Joshua 
could not exterminate took refuge in these mountains (Jud. 
iii. 3) . There is a hereditary nobility on Lebanon who claun 
the military homage and service of their dependents, like the 
Scottish chiefs of old. War is announced between these chiefs 
by the CL^^*^, voice, which, in all essentials, resembles the 
Fiery Cross of the Highland clans. The muster-place is 
announced by rumiers from village to village, and the ex- 
terminating fury of these hostile bands might easily originate 
the descriptive phrase, the violence of Lebanon. The Turks 



32 



ILLUSTKiTIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 



and the Moliammedan religion never made tlieir way into 
these strong fastnesses, and the present inhabitants, if nnited. 
could defend themselves and theii' religion against all the 
forces of the Snltan. The Druses and the Christians are. 
however, mortal enemies, and seldom continue more than a 
year or two in a state of peace. 

7th. The ghry of Lehanon (Isaiah Ix. 13) denotes the cedar, 
as it is mentioned in connection ^vix\i the lir tree, the box, 
and the pine, which are to beautify the sanctuary of the Lord. 
See also Isaiah xxxv. 2. Lebanon is not sufficient to burn 
(Is. xl. 16), shews the remarkable fertility of the mountain, 
and the great abimdance of its trees. The doors o f Lebanon 
(Zech. xi. 1) are the valleys, gorges, and moimtain passes, 
throuoh which the devoiu'iiio: element reaches the cedar 
groves. 

8th. "^^Tien I was in the Lebanon, and indeed in the entire 
East, we had difficulties in getting servant girls. This arises 
from two causes. 1 . That service is generally done hj slaves, 
and we refused to pui-chase. The retiring character of 
females in the East, and the bad character of many Em-opean 
travellers have brought about this result — that a decent girl 
suspects you and T^-ill not come into youi' house, and those who 
would come you are unwilling to take. However, one day a 
poor wretched being came to my door and proposed to be a 
servant. ^Vhere are your parents ? Dead. Have you brother 
or sister ? Dead, all dead. Have you any friends ^ ^sTo. Have 
you no better clothes than these ? !N^one, none ! and at this 
word she uncovered her teeth, touched them with the joined 
finger and thumb, thus reminding me of the exquisite de- 
lineation of poverty (Job xix. 20) — " My bone cleaveth to my 
skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped mth the skin of my 
teeth." 



IXHABITANTS OF LEBANON. 33 

II. The inhahitants of Lehanon. Tlie first and most 
nimierous class of the inhabitants are the Maronites. These 
are a remnant of the ancient Christians, probably of the 
Monothelite sect, who snr^iyed the persecutions of the orthodox 
emperors of the East, and the still more exterminating fury 
of Caled, the sword of Grod, and the CaKphs of the new and 
victorious Islam. Here, in these magnificent mountain fast- 
nesses, the persecuted found a refuge, alike from the sword of 
the Saracen and the unbrotherly glance of the heresy-finder. 
Their district extends over the mountain from Tripoli to Tyre, 
and the noble Alpine hills and yaUeys, called Kasrawan, are 
entirely their own. The whole Maronite nation cannot be 
less than 200,000 souls. They take the name from a monk 
called Maro, who LLyed in the fourth century. The number of 
priests is reckoned to be about 1,000. There are, if we beheye 
the papal authorities, sixty-seyen monasteries containing 
1410 monks, and fifteen nunneries containing 330 nims. Since 
the twelfth century they haye submitted to the authority of 
the see of Rome, retaining, howeyer, not a few of their 
ancient and national priyileges. They haye their own 
patriarch, who is elected by the bishops, and inyested by 
the Poj)e. Their priests are mostly married men, but if they 
enter into orders unmarried they remain bachelors all their 
life ; nor can a widower, either among the Maronite or the 
Greek priests, take a second wife. The bishops and the 
patriarch must belong to the angelic sanctity of the celibate. 
This is a remarkable interpretation of 1 Tim. iii. 2. The 
papacy yielded in this, as in other cases, to necessity, nor does 
it appear that there is almost any doctrine or practice which 
Home would not yield to secure the headship and soyereignty 
of the imiyersal yicar. In the days of Queen EKzabeth, the 
poj)e ofiered to consecrate the Liturgy and the Thirty-nine 
Articles, and admit the British nation into the maternal embrace 

D 



34 



MARONITES. GREEK CHURCH. 



(Eey. xvii. 5), on tlie sole condition of the headsliip of tlie 
see of Rome. The Maronites, as a body, are a quiet, peaceable, 
and inoffensive people — bigoted Roman Catholics, ignora.ntof the 
world, chained, both by preference and necessity, to the "^dne- 
clad and romantic slopes of the goodly mountain, and entirely 
dependent for instruction of all kinds on an ill-informed priest- 
hood ; theii' faith is fervid, their zeal intolerant, and their 
general character not unlike the Yendeans of France. The 
patriarch resides in the convent of Kanobin, has an income 
of 2,000 a year, presides over nine metropolitan bishops, 1,200 
priests, and 356 congregations or churches. They have foiu- 
seminaries or colleges, in which the Arabic and Syrian 
languages are taught, some branches of philosophy, and what- 
ever amount of theology is deemed necessary for the priest- 
hood. Preaching is no part of the duty of a priest, and the 
few who are able and willing to exercise this office must have 
the special permission of the patriarch to do so. Bells are 
allowed in the Maronite churches, a privilege which no 
other conmiunity in the East enjoys, for the Mohammedans 
hate, with a perfect hatred, these public calls to Christian 
worship. 

Second. There is a small body of the G-reek Chui'ch on Moimt 
Lebanon. Their numbers, however, are inconsiderable, and 
the ignorance of the priests, the monks, and the people, almost 
inconceivable. Indeed, throughout the entire East, the Greek 
priests are proverbial for ignorance, impudence, and stupidity. 
The bishop comes to a village, selects one of the peasants — who 
is able to read the service, baptise the childi^en, anoint the 
sick, and bury the dead — ^lays his hands on him, communicates 
the electrical succession of apostolicity {yiz., stupidit^r), and so 
constitutes him the spiritual father of the community. In 
theory the Grreek Church may, in some respects, have the 
advantage of the Papal ; but in practice, in vigoui', in every- 



THE TWO PARTIES CO:\IPARED. 



35 



thing that constitutes character, efficiency, and respectability, 
she is far behind her. Take the following particidars : — 

1st. I have said the Maronite priests are comparatively illite- 
rate. This is true. But they are two centiuies before the 
Greeks. All the Christian Kterature of Syria is among the 
Maronites. The best Arabic school in the world, perhaps, is 
aniong them, and they haye produced some good graromars 
and lexicons of that noble and ponderous dialect. 

2nd. The clergj^ of the Maronites are forbidden to engage 
in secular employments. They must liye by the altar. The 
Greek priests are employed, lil^e the other peasants, in the 
laboui' of the fields. 

3rd. The Maronite priest must go through a regular course 
of preparatory studies. He is prepared in the schools and 
colleges of the nation, and not unfrequently finished in the 
Maronite Arabic College, at Rome. This gives him a great 
advantage over the poor Greek. 

4th. The Greek Church has, in Syria and the East generally, 
the character of a quiet, inoperative, dormant conunimity ; the 
Papal, on the contrary, assumes the attitude of an earnest, 
ambitious, conquering, missionary church, which claims and 
is destined to possess the dominion of the world. Consequently 
multitudes of the Greeks have come over to the papacy, and, 
generally speaking, the poorer portion of the Christians in 
Syria belong to the Greek, the more wealthy, fashionable, 
and influential to the Papal, Church. 

These are the two bodies of Christians that inhabit the 
Moimtain, and among these have the American missionaries 
been labouring for a considerable period. Missionary schools 
have been opened for many years ; a high school or college is 
now established at Abeih,imder the superintendence of the Rev. 
Dr. Vandyke, for the education of the higher classes. The 
object of these Christian missionaries is not to dismember, but 

D 2 



36 



MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS 



to enligliten the Oriental cliurclies, and shed, as far as may be, 
a new life throngli the slumbering communities of the East. 
We are now nearly to bid farewell to the Christians of the 
Lebanon, but before we do so, we must direct your attention 
for a moment to the 

MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS OF THE LEBANON. 

Stand upon that eminence, my brother, and look round 
you over these variegated slopes ; these larger buildings and 
time-worn castles are almost without exception convents, 
filled with fat, hirsute, and stalwart monks, whose dress may 
remind you of their order, but ^hose appearance gives no 
indication either of fasting or flagellation. They are well 
endowed with pleasant fields and vineyards, and their cellars 
are bursting with the choicest wines of Lebanon. The con- 
templative life, as they call it, has here certainly not a few 
attractions ; the sun and the scenery, the mountains, rocks, 
and terrific precipices fill the mind with awe, and seem to 
carry you from nature up to nature's Grod ; and if man were 
not made for labour and social development, if he were a mo- 
notone, and not an essential part in the gamut of the creation, 
I know of no spot where his solitary notes might die away 
more harmlessly than among these hills. Man, however, is 
not a vegetable. We are all descended from a common 
origin, are all related to one another by the ties of blood ; 
and the virtues and duties which nature and the Bible 
enjoin, demonstrate that seclusion is neither the arena on 
which moral triumphs are to be achieved, nor the field from 
which we are to gather the fruits of righteousness. I have 
no objection to your remaining like Paul (1 Cor. vii. 7), and 
exercising your gifts without let or encumbrance for the glory 
of the Redeemer ; or if you choose to follow the illustrious 
Origen, I shall neither blame nor dissuade you ; but I have 



OF THE LEBANON. 



37 



great objection to your entering into vows, joining yourself 
with others in a semi-huinan society, of which nature and 
the Bible say nothing, and spending the few and evil days 
which God has given you among the sands of the desert 
or the tempests of the mountain tops. 

1. Tell me, if you please, what it was that cried so 
vehemently to the Lord of heaven, and drew down froni the 
angry Creator streams of fire upon the cities of the plain ? 
Tell me, if you please, what it was in the old Roman world 
(Yirgil, Eclog. ii., line 1), which has made the monuments 
of the nation that have survived the hand of time, a disgrace 
to human nature? ^Yhat is it in the Orient at the present 
day, which exercises such a demoralising influence, from the 
Sultan to the meanest of the people ? ISTow, if such enor- 
mities have been, and are still practised upon the earth, and 
in the midst of regularly constituted societies, is it wise in 
you, by monastic secrecy and seclusion, to increase the 
tendencies and facilities to crime ? 

2. I know you will say, ''I seek after purity, I long 
for entire dedication to God ; " hear me, my brother. There 
was a time when the conventual system was in full operation 
through the whole of Christendom ; these institutions spread 
and reproduced themselves like the processes of vegetation, 
and filled the whole world with the indestructible monuments 
of mistaken piety and benevolence. Were they, however, 
a refuge for the lowly and contrite heart? Were they, 
indeed, the ark of piety, modesty, heavenly-mindedness, and 
all the sweet virtues of which the world is not worthy, 
where iniquity of every kind, like an overflowing flood, 
seemed to submerge Christianity itself ? Is it not a historical 
fact that they resembled rather the Augean stable, which 
required the waters of a deluge let into it in order to make 
Christianity tolerable in Christendom, and churchmen en- 



38 



MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS CONSIDERED. 



durable among the sons of men ? Tlie holiness of the ancient 
prophets, the sanctity of the apostles and the Lord Jesus 
Christ himself, did not lead them away from the intercourse 
of mankind to the solitudes of the desert. It led them into 
defilement, and yet kept them undefiled ; it gave them the 
wide field of the world to work in, and suppKed them with 
motives and strength to sustain them in the work. We 
suspect all other holiness. It is not genuine. It is morbid, 
it is unsocial, unworldly ; it is not su|)ernatural but unnatural, 
not super-human but anti-human, and while seeking to elevate 
to the purity of angels it sinks its votaries too often below 
the level of the brutes. The conventual system is at the 
best but an organised system of cowardice. You have not 
faith to walk with Jesus upon the waters, and so you retire 
to the solitude. The furnace is too hot for you, the Son of 
man must walk it alone, for your weak and unloving heart 
refuses to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes. Where is 
that faith to be found of which the apostle speaks (Heb. xi.), 
which led the worthies of the olden time to such glorious 
deeds ? Certainly it is not so much evidenced by lying like 
a water-melon on the slopes of Lebanon, as by ofiferings like 
those of Abraham, good deeds like those of Joseph, self- 
denial like that of Moses, and heroic actions like those of 
Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, Samson, and the son of Jesse. 

3. Besides, let me tell you, the influence of woman 
upon the social system, the amount which she contributes to 
the sanctity and civilisation of the human race is so con- 
siderable, that we cannot aflbrd to dispense with her joyous 
and tranquillising presence. The infidelity of David Hume 
was awed by the presence and conversation of modest females. 
Dr. Whately thinks that a savage could never civilise him- 
self, while Dr. Arnold contends that a barbarian might ; but 
it is surely equally certain that no people among whom the 



THE DRUSES. 



39 



institute of marriage prevailed, could be either tlie one or 
the other, and therefore Adam and Eve were neither savages 
nor barbarians, but decent civilised people, and created in 
the image of Grod. Monasticism is, therefore, a step in the 
direction of the savage or the barbarian. It is a separation 
of what Grod has joined together, a volimtary divorce between 
the tender and the resolute, the beautiful and the strong ; 
and hence it has come to pass, that in all ages the most un- 
relenting persecutors in the Papal apostasy have ever been 
from among the clergy and the monastic orders. You see 
the same truth on these hills of Lebanon. Here the con- 
ventual system, which in Europe has been declining since 
the Reformation, is in vigorous operation, and fanaticism and 
superstition have been multiplying on the goodl}^ mountain, 
like the power of its vegetation, with startling luxuriance, 
and the result is that a Protestant would hardly be allowed, 
to pass through the district of Kasrawan without injury or 
insult. The convent is the nest egg of superstition ; and 
fanaticism and persecution are but a second generation 
from the same unclean bird. So much have I thought it 
right to say about the Christians and their institutions on 
Mount Lebanon. We come now to the Druses. 

III. The Druses of Mount Lebanon, and those scattered 
through the adjacent towns, may amount to 150,000. They 
formerly possessed the entire mountain, and formed under 
their emirs a small but compact and formidable monarchy. 
The conversion of the house of Shehab, the governing family, 
to the Maronite faith, gave the preponderance into the hands 
of the Christians, and the worshippers of Hakim are now 
compelled to divide their power. The Druses are the most 
free and warlike portion of the inhabitants. The religion of 
the Druses is not fully known, nor does it deserve to be 



40 



THE druses/ 



better. The nation is religiously divided into two classes, 
the initiated and the uninitiated, or the wise men and the 
fools. The uninitiated take no part in their public worship, 
nor is there any salvation for them according to the religion 
of Hakim. The god of the Druses is a free, glorious, and 
eternal spirit, the creator, predestinator, and ruler of the 
world, undefined and incomprehensible, who at different 
periods of the history of the universe has revealed himself 
in human form, without sharing the weaknesses of humanity. 
His last incarnation took place on the 411th year of the 
Hegira, in the form of Hakim Biamer Allah, the third 
Fatimite caliph of Egypt, and no other appearance is to be 
expected till the day of judgment, which is the triumph of 
the true religion, and the glorification of the Unitarians or 
Druses. The first-born of the Creator is Intelligence, through 
whom, as a medium, all other things were created, and 
Hamzah is the form through which this Universal Intelli- 
gence ministers and mediates between Hakim and the 
creation. All things are, according to the Druses, moving 
round in the successions of a imiversal circle ; the number 
of souls is fixed, and can neither be increased nor diminished ; 
all things are guided by an absolute predestination, and yet 
so as to enter into, pervade, and succeed one another by the prin- 
ciple or law of transmigration. The seven commandments of 
Hamzah require the utterance of truth, charity towards their 
brethren, the renunciation of all other religions, and absolute 
devotion to Hakim. As to dress, manners, customs, &c., the 
Druses differ from the other Orientals only in the head-dress of 
the ladies. This is the tantoor or horn. As to material, the horn 
is made of dough or tin, silver or gold, according to the rank 
and fortune of the wearer ; as to shape, it is very like the 
horn of a cow, thick and massive at the root, and ending 
pyramidally in a sharp point ; the length varies from six 



fHE DRUSES. 



41 



inclies to two feet, or two feet and a half; in tlie mode 
of wearing it the ladies are divided, some erecting it upon the 
head exactly in the centre, so that it rises up in rectilineal 
elegance between the eyes, others, preferring yariety to nni- 
formity and Hogarth's waving line of beauty to a right 
ascension, fix it on in the direction of the eyebrow. This 
gives a pleasing variety. The horn is bound firmly upon 
the head with bands under the chin ; tassels, trinkets, and 
ornaments descend from it in plentiful profusion upon the 
neck, back, and to the heels of the wearer, adding both to 
the expense and weight of that ponderous and most fantastic 
head-dress. The turbans and head-gear of the Orientals, 
men and women, are fixtures ; and not to be removed like our 
hats and bonnets at certain times and seasons duiing the day. 
They put ofi" the shoes, but retain the turbans. They sleep 
in their clothes, as in the days of Moses, and many of the 
Druses retain the horn during the night. This, you may 
easily suppose, tends more to the encouragement of life than 
of cleanliness. It is worse still in the deserts, where water 
is so scarce. The wandering Bedaween, if he be so fortunate 
as to have a shirt, retains it till it falls ofi", or perhaps walks 
ofi", which it certainly might do were it not for the want of 
unanimity, that great want in all kinds of communities. If 
he makes any change, it will be when he comes to a good 
fire, where a few benevolent shakes relieves the afilicted and 
backbitten Ishmaelite of not a few of his unscrupulous per- 
secutors. But, whatever you may think, the Druses are 
att-Bched to their customs, and the ladies will not give up 
the horn. The great prince, the Ameer Basheer, tried to 
efiect a change, but the ladies opposed a stubborn resistance, 
and the prince yielded, saying that he would not lose his 
crown for a horn. Then you must remember that the Druse 
lady, like all the women of the East, is swathed in the white 



42 



VARIOUS PARTICTOLAES. 



veil, from the top of the horii to tlie soles of the feet, so 
that the appearance, walking, sitting, or riding, is most 
fantastic and ridiculous. Some have supposed that the use 
of the horn as a head-dress gives the true explanation of 
the numerous passages of scripture Trhich refer to it as a 
s}Tiibol of poAver. This, however, goes on the supposition 
that the Jews wore horns, which has never been proved. 
The symbol is not taken from men but from beasts. (Rev. 
V. 6; xii. 3 ; xiii. 1, &c. ; xvii. 3, 7, &c.) The defence of 
the bull are his horns, (pacng KEpara ravpoig. — Anacr. Ode 2. 
The poet is a dangerous animal, sajs Horace. Foenum 
habet in cornu, longe fuge — ^he has hay on his horn, avoid 
him ; (compare Exod. xxi. 28 ;) and also Book iii.. Ode 21, 
line 18, Adis cornua pauperi — thou givest horns (strength, 
resolution, substance) to the poor ; and Homer says, Achilles 
horned, Tpwag KEpa'ile^ pushed with his horns the Trojans. 
Hiad ii., line 861. We say in English, he pulled in his horns, 
and in all the languages of the East and the West we find 
the same metaphorical use of the word horn. Jesus is there- 
fore the KEpaQ aojrr]piciQ, Luke i. 69 ; the horn of salvation, 
the redeemer and defender of his people. The exalting of the 
horn is the increase of power, wealth, and glory. Psalms, 
Ixxv. 4; Ixxxix. 17, 24; xlii. 10; cxii. 9; cxxxii. 17; 
cxlviii. 14, and many others ; and the cutting off the horns 
means the destruction of power and influence. Jer. xlviii. 25. 
Lam. ii. 3. Psalm Ixxv. 10. 

III. Various jmrficiilars. — In passing through a country, 
the intelligent traveller has his eyes and ears ever open 
to all that is new, varied, or interesting in the scenery, or 
among the inhabitants. He observes, compares, and as far 
as possible analyses, the ingredients which enter into and 
compose his general impressions. He seeks to give its 



THE I10-U)S OF LEBAXOX. 



43 



proper place to eacL. indiyidual eleraent, and to arrive at 
accurate conclusions, by separating as clearly as may be 
the actual realities from tbe deceptions of tbe imagination 
and romance. This is necessary eyerj^here, but especially 
so in Palestine, where history, prophecy, and misery, the 
past, the future, and the present, combine to influence the 
judgment through the fancy, and lead you more or less into 
the regions of fairy-land. 

1st. What kind of roads have you on Lebanon? I have 
brought my carriage with me, I am a little gouty, and wish 
to travel independently and at my ease. Then you had better 
sell your carriage, and buy a donkey. Mr. Farren, the 
Consid- general of Syria, took a fine London-built carriage 
to Damascus. He "slashed to have English comfort in the 
ancient city of the Caliphs, and show the Orientals some of 
the refinements of modern luxury. That carriage was never 
used ; on leaving, he made a present of it to the Pasha, 
and when I was leaving Damascus, it stood in the palace- 
yard of the Pasha, not as the elegant vehicle of beauty and 
luxury, but as a very comfortable nesting-place for a few 
incubating hens ! What food for the imagination have you 
now in that carriao;e ! Old Eno^land rises ur> before vou in 
all her glories, the home of the sciences, the ark of religion 
and civilisation, the terror, the admiration, and the wonder 
of the world ! Suppose the carriage which drove Adam 
and Eve out of paradise (if they used one), had been 
running along the course of time ever since, improved and 
amended in the difierent ao^es accordino: to the variations 
of taste and the advances of science, and you see now before 
you the last and newest edition of that wonder of mechanical 
genius, a light and stout and well-balanced carriage -wheel. 
Compare with it the ^^IK of the Hebrews, the '^p^X^^ 
of the Greeks, the rota of the Latins, and you have the 



44 



TERRACES OF LEBANON. 



history of civilisation. But moralising apart, tlie natural 
is better than the artificial, and the donkey, or the mule, 
or the horse, is better both for the gout and the Lebanon 
than your fine London carriage. These animals are safe 
and sure-footed, and when you arrive at those ledges and 
precipices which seem dangerous and impassable, all you 
have to do is to lay the reins on the saddle bow, shut 
your eyes, and allow your mule to have his own way. These 
roads are mere mountain paths. They have been worn by 
the feet of mules and donkeys, but never formed by the hand 
of man. I have often ridden over passages in Lebanon, 
where I would have been afraid to walk. Here you make 
way along an old watercourse, and then you .surmount the 
bare and slippery rock, but the threatening crag, and the 
yawning gulf, are all the same to your steady and sure-footed 
mule. The gout leaves you on Lebanon. This may console 
you, as you breakfast on bread and grapes, dine on bread and 
oil, and lie down to sleep soundly in your tent at the setting 
of the sun. 

2nd. What is a terrace ? The terraces of Palestine, the 
terraces of Lebanon, are the arable belts or stripes that are 
found on the sides of the mountains. In Lebanon they very 
often succeed one another, like winding stairs, up to very 
high elevations. There is no lack of stones on Lebanon : 
take then a mass of stones, and build a rude wall or buttress 
with them, four, six, or ten feet high, in proportion to the 
width of the intended terrace and the steepness of the 
mountain side; then take the spade, crow-bar, &c., and 
level the surface, gathering together with the greatest 
care all the mould possible, supporting it against the fore- 
mentioned buttress of stones : all is now ready, plant your 
vines and your olives, and lay in your vegetable seeds ; then 
add another and another as you find time and occasion, and 



ANIMALS OF LEBANON. 



45 



let in among tlie roots of the trees the water tliat descends 
from the dissolving snows, or flows from the fountains, and 
you reaKse the terraces of Lebanon, and the imagery of the 
first Psalm : 

"He shall be like a tree planted by the rzVers of waters." 

a division comes from -3^3 to divide (Gen. x. 5, "his 
name was Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided"), 
and does not mean a river, for which the proper word is ; 
but a cut or canal, by which the water is drained off for the 
purposes of irrigation. The LXX. have given the exact idea 
of the Hebrew : irapa rag ^le^o^ovg rojv v^aruyv, yiz. : the 
artificial canals for the purpose of irrigation. And this is 
also the idea of the Arabic, sUl^ l^j^ L^? ad decursus 
aquarum. This Kttle division, this little Peleg (from which 
comes the Greek TreXayoQ the sea, the divider of nations), 
flows in among your trees in these upland terraces, and keeps 
them always green. " His leaf shall not ivither, he bringeth 
forth his fruit in his season." Observe, also, how the husband- 
man lets the water off and on. He displaces a sod with 
his foot, and that simple action explains watering mth the 
foot, Deut. xi. 10. 

3rd. What are the animals of Lebanon? The lion, 
ti^^*?, Jf^, is no longer foimd in these fastnesses 

and impenetrable retreats, as in the days of old. (Cant. iv. 8.) 
But the leopard, the irap^aXiq of the LXX, the 

panther of Buffon, still shews his beautiful spots, and exercises 
his fierce disposition on the goodly mountain. The domestic 
animals are the same as in Palestine generally. The camel 
is not at home on the rocks and precipices of Lebanon ; his 
feet, soft and noiseless, his patience, his capability of doing 
long without water, render him the ship of the desert, and 
the only companion of man through the solitudes of bound- 



46 



ANIMALS OF LEBANOX. 



less sand. He is used, but not extensively, on tlie mountains. 
The general uses of tlie animals are these- — tlie horse for 
riding, the mule for carrying burdens, the camel for the 
desert, the cow for ploughing, the goat for giving milk, 
the sheep for mutton, and the donkey for the ladies. The 
horse never ploughs, and as there are no carriages of any kind, 
he can be used only for riding. The cow in Syria is little 
used for milk. In Damascus you can get it, but the quality 
is of a very inferior kind, and the goat's is dearer and 
much preferred. The cow is a large, raw, high-boned, un- 
fatt enable animal, and being regularly wrought in the 
cultivation of the soil the milk is bad. The Orientals eat 
no beef, and the swine is an utter abomination to all classes, 
Turks, J ews, and Christians. The ox is an invention unknown 
to the ancients, and has as yet made little way into the East. 
Dogs and cats you find everywhere. The cats are pets and fa- 
vourites with the Moslem ladies, as they are the mortal enemies 
of the serpents. I found a serpent two feet and a half long 
in my bedroom, which a cat had killed. In Damascus, hardly 
any house is free from serpents. The dogs are considered 
unclean, and are never domesticated in the East. They are 
thin, lean, fox-like animals, and always at the starving point. 
They live, breed, and die in the streets. They are useful as 
scavengers. They are neither fondled nor persecuted, but 
simply tolerated, and no dog has an owner or ever follows 
or accompanies a man, as the sheep do. I went out in the 
evening once when at Beyrout with my teacher, to enjoy 
the fresh air, and talk Arabic. My little English dog, the 
gift of a friend, followed us. We passed through a garden 
where a venerable Moslem was sitting on a stone, silently 
and solemnly engaged in smoking his pipe. He observed 
the dog following us, and was astonished at it as something 
new and extraordinary, and rising, and making out of the way, 



\t:llages and houses. 



47 



lie cried out, "May his father be accursed, is that a dog 
or a fox?" The Orientals when angry, you must observe, 
do not curse or abuse one another as we do, but their fathers, 
to the thousandth generation. They apply the same prin- 
ciple to animals and things. How often have I heard the 
donkey- driver as he gave the weary animal a thrust in the 
hip with the goad, (a sharp pointed stick, sometimes tipped 
with iron — 1 Sam, xiii. 21) cry out, i^^^l'^, "get 

on, may your father be accursed, get on." jic\« y^, the 
father of the cannon, is the name of a fine Turkish coin, 
which bears the representation of a cannon. Our coins 
would in Oriental language be called, " the father of the 
harp and the crown." The same wide use of the word 
father is found in Scripture. 

4th. The inhabitants of Lebanon, like those of the East in 
general, live in villages, and their houses are very rude and 
primitive in their construction ; the climate, except for a 
short time in winter, is mild and salubrious, and the shadow 
of a rock or the shade of a tree serves almost all the purposes 
of a house. You enter by a rude gate a little enclosed court, 
at the end of which two or three rooms are built in propor- 
tion to the family ; beams of wood and branches of trees are 
laid across the walls, and covered with a layer of earth ; 
you ascend this roof by a stone stair from the court, if you 
want to enjoy the air. They sleep in their clothes, and 
consequently have little use either for beds or bedrooms ; 
the kitchen is merely an angle in the court, where two or 
three stones are rolled together, so that a pot or tangera can 
rest upon them ; nor do they generally need anything more ; 
cooking is required only for the supper, and not always even 
then, so that fire, except for the pipe, is not requisite till 
near the evening ; they do indeed sometimes kindle fires in 
their houses, but, like the old Romans, they have no chimneys 



48 



VILLAGES AND HOUSES. 



to draw off tlie smoke, and glass is as little used in Lebanon 
as it was in Rome. Nothing can exceed the jSJtli of these 
houses and courts ; there is Kttle or no furniture indeed, and 
that is a blessing, and the floors are rarely swept, so that 
the mat on which you tread, and the walls and the roof are 
filled with innumerable multitudes of vermin of all kinds, 
cavalry , infantry, and artillery, ready for the contest. 

" All regarding man as their prey; 
All rejoicing in his decay." 

Before I took my family into my house in the tillage of 
Abeih, I had to cover the floor with a layer of teen, or soft 
wet clay, by which means we got rid of multitudes, though 
sufiicient numbers remained to render it an uneasy though a 
very healthful dwelling. Do not suppose from this, that my 
residence on the goodly mountain was disagreeable. Par, 
very far, from it. I had in me and around me almost every 
element of complete earthly happiness. I had health and 
hard labour, which since the Fall is necessary to our happiness. 
I breathed the pure air of the mountain, and drank the water 
from the rock. I had agreeable society in the American 
missionaries, Mr. Thomson, Mr. Whiting, Mr. Smyth, and 
Dr. Vandyke ; and in Mr. Black and Mr. Scott, merchants, 
from Bey rout. I had the opportunity, too, occasionally, of 
preaching the gospel to my countrjnnen. I had my family 
around me, and I cherished the pleasing hope that the Lord 
Jesus was preparing me for glorifying his name in the land 
of his humiliation, and among his brethren according to the 
flesh. I therefore look back to my sojourn on Lebanon with 
pleasure, and would speedily return to the East if I could ; 
nor does any part of the Lord's dealings with me seem more 
dark and mysterious than the circumstances which compelled 
me to leave Damascus. We bow without a mui^mur before 



SUBMISSION. 



49 



the heavenly chasten er (Heb. xii. 6), and seek to subordinate 
our will to His. He doeth all things well; love suffers, and 
is made perfect through suffering. 

" To Thee we turn ; to Thee we come for rest, 
Immortal Sufferer ! though now on high ; 
And John-like leaning on thy loving breast, 
We calmly wait our summons to the sky." 



E 



50 



CHANGE OF SCENEKY. 



CHAPTEE III. 

BAALBEK. 

Introduction; General Scenery : I. The Walls; The Stones; The Quarry. 
Who built Them ? II. The Temples : 1st. The Little Temple described ; 
2nd. The Temple of the Sun described ; 3rd. The Polytheon described. 
III. A historical sketch of Baalbek. IV. Eeflections : 1st. The permanent 
Character of Localities ; 2nd. The partiality of History; 3rd. The strength 
of P^ehgious Comdctions ; 4th. National Character ; 5th. An Evening 
Scene. 

"We now leave the rich, scenery of the goodly monntain, with 
aU its strange varieties of men, manners, and reHgious 
opinions. The fearful depths below, and the overhanging 
crags aboye, frighten ns no more ; the piercing winds, the 
desert summits, and the everlasting snows have jdelded to 
smiling valle^^s, cultivated gardens, and all the endearments 
of busy rural .life. The strangest contrasts, both moral and 
physical, are at home on this mountain. Storm and stillness, 
rugged desolation and richest verdure, summer and winter, 
meet the traveller in the course of a few hours. The words 
of the poet concerning Lebanon are literally true — 

^' Whose head in wintry grandeur towers 
And whitens in eternal sleet, 
While summer in a vale of showers 
Is sleeping rosy at his feet." 

Farewell, ye Alpine rides ! I have seen much and admired 
much in Egypt, Italy, France, Germany, England, Scotland, 
and Ireland, but all must yield to these ! There is no tame- 



A THUNDER-STORM. 51 

ness here; everything is perfect in its kind. The air is balm; 
the rugged summits are sterility itself; the fertility of the 
valleys is amazing; the thistle grows by the cedar thirty- 
seven feet in circumference as in the days of old ; the snows 
are everlasting ; no leaf moves in the dead stillness, and the 
terrific vehemence of the thunder-storm can be described 
only by God himself (Psalm xxix.). Awful, indeed, are the 
electrical flames, which leap forth from the reverberating 
mountain tops ! Behold, at the distance, in the direction of 
the sea, a little cloud ; it is about the size of a man's hand 
(1 Kings xviii. 44) ; it rises higher and higher, and becomes 
every moment larger and larger ; the mountain attracts it, 
and now, black, dense, and terrible, it stands poised in mid- air, 
ready to discharge its thimders. Look at it steadily, there 
is a movement in it. And now the dark pavilion of the 
unknown is rent into many fragments, and the voice of God 
comes forth in glory and majesty ; the rain is a deluge of 
waters, the lightnings rend the cedars, and echo, the daughter 
of the hills, reverberates and prolongs the peals of thunder. 
Most awful, most grand, indescribable ! It is a thunder- 
storm on Lebanon. Give, now, one last lingering look over 
these hills before we leave them for ever. See all elements 
here, and all sweetly, nobly combined, in order to arrest the 
attention and expand the heart ; you have sea and land, 
mountain and vale, wooded heights and flowing streams; 
valleys, villages, and busy life if you look below ; look above 
you, it is fierce, wild, irreclaimable desolation ; the valleys are 
vocal with the birds of song, and the mountain tops re-echo 
with the voice of God ; mean human habitations contrasted 
with overwhelming masses of matter ; scraps and patches of 
man's labour contrasted with the boundless grandeur of Jeho- 
vah's works. Memory is awed and excited by the associations 
of the past ; hope rises on eagle's wings into a glorious future ; 



52 



THE bak:.aa. 



wMle tlie present sense is cliarmed and attracted, aroused or 
tranqiiillised, by every conceivable object of beauty, terror, and 
sublimity; the great and tbe little, the tender and tbe terrible, 
are here and in all varieties ; forms, shapes, and distances are, 
to the European eye, utterly confounded and anniliilated by the 
clearness and rarity of the air ; the near and the remote seem 
to blend in the circumambient clouds ; the attractive and the 
repulsive, all that is awfully grand, as veil as all that is 
elegantly little, meet and mingle in this panorama of nature, 
not confusedly like a work of chance, but in loveliest order 
and arrangement like a work of God ; and then over the 
whole of it, beautiful, various, infinite as it is, from the snowy 
summits to the burning base, the glorious sun of Syria, unit- 
ing and harmonising all, throws the radiance of his golden 
beams. Ye goodly moimtains, farewell ! Onward, forward ! 
Where are we now ? AVe are in the Bakaa, what the Arabs 
designate, by way of emphasis, the valley, and the Greeks 
Coelo- Syria, from its being a hollow, formed by nature's hand 
between Lebanon and Antilebanon ; to the right rises the 
Leontes, and flows southward into the sea at Tyre ; it is the 
Kasimiah of the Arabs. Away in the distance to the left rises 
the Orontes, and flows northward towards the former queen 
of the East, the rival of Eome itself and the capital of the 
Macedonian kings, Antioch. This river reminds you of many 
things, but chiefly the wastes which the tooth of time has 
made. The d^masty of the Seleucidae was here, and 
luxury, civilisation, and corruption passed their usual stages 
of growth, consummation, and decay. Eome felt the influ- 
ence of the Syrian dance and Oriental efieminacy, so that 
the indignant satirist (Juvenal, iii. 62) sees the Tiber sub- 
merged in the Orontes — 

" Jampridem Syrus in Tyberim deflnxit Orontes 
Et linguam, et mores, et cum tibicine cliordas 
Obliquas," &c. 



WALL OF BAALBEK. 



53 



But here are the ruins of Baalbek, the noblest and the 
most Cyclopean in the world. The position is worthy of 
them. Situated between Lebanon, Antilebanon, the Leontes, 
and the Orontes, Baalbek bears its silent testimony to reli- 
gious systems, architectural splendours, and political power 
and greatness now long past and gone. The charm of these 
ruins is not their extent, but their grandeur ; the ruins of 
Palmyra cover a far larger space, yet though very magni- 
ficent they make no such impression upon the traveller as 
Baalbek. Let us approach and examine them as minutely 
as brevity will allow. 

I. The Wall. At the north-west corner of the temple- area 
you first meet the Cyclopean masonry ; nine stones are built 
into a wall of inconceivable strength and solidity. The average 
dimensions of these stones are thirty-one feet long, nine feet 
seven inches broad, and thirteen feet deep. Pass round the 
corner westward, and you behold with wonder and amazement 
the great wall, in which one stone, the greatest indeed, measures 
sixty-nine feet in length, thirteen in depth, and eighteen in 
thickness, containing about 16,146 cubic feet, and weighing 
above 1,000 tons. It is one of the largest masses of rock that 
ever were moved by human hands ; its fellow lies in the quarry 
about a mile distant, wrought into form, and ready to be 
removed into its destined place. But who will remove it ? It 
measures sixty-nine feet in length, is seventeen broad, and 
sixteen deep, and weighs probably 1,400 tons; a stupendous 
building stone ! But you are not to suppose, with some idolaters 
of antiquity, that it could not be moved in modern times. This 
is false. Let the British Parliament give the order and the 
money, and Colonel Stevenson or some other engineer will place 
it in the city of London, as a pedestal for a statue of Queen 
Yictoria. Falconet, a French sculptor, at the bidding of 



54 



BUILDERS OF BAALBEK. 



Catherine II. of Russia, roUed a mass of granite, forty- two feet 
long at tlie base, thirty- six at the top, twenty- one thick, and 
seventeen high, through a marsh four miles long, with forty 
men sitting on the top of it, until it reached the Neva, where 
it was embarked, and conveyed to the spot where it now stands 
in St. Petersburg, as the equestrian statue of Peter the Great. 
It weighs, at the least, 15,000 tons, and is probably the greatest 
mass of stone ever moved from place by himian skill. These 
walls at Baalbek are, nevertheless, very astonishing; the 
stones are so closely joined that the seams are scarcely ob- 
servable, and the contemplation of the whole ruin impresses 
you with combined ideas of the beautifid and the strong, the 
artistic and the gigantic. But who built this wall ? 

1st. Tradition attributes the building of the whole, walls, 
temples, and all, to Solomon. This is the Baal-hamon (Song 
viii. 11) where Solomon had his vineyards, his palaces, and his 
idolatrous temples ; and if the buildings seem to exceed human 
powers, the Moslems will tell you that Solomon was lord of the 
ginn or genii, who ministered on all occasions to his imperial 
comtmands. This tradition, like most other traditions, is, at 
least, partly false ; the three temples are not J ewish, and no rea- 
sonable person could ever for a moment have thought them to 
be so. They are idolatrous, and they are of Grrecian architecture. 
But the wall — Is it Jewish ? The great stones of the temple 
at Jerusalem are bevilled at the joinings in the wall, these at 
Baalbek are not, and in so far the origin of the wall seems 
not to be Jewish Besides, this must have been almost as 
great and expensive a wall as the temple of God itself, and 
yet the Scripture gives no syllable concerning it ! This is 
highly improbable, if it belongs to the age of Solomon. 

2nd. Did the Romans build this wall ? Most people are of 
opinion they did. They say it is worthy of that great people ; 
it is like their ideas of power, fame, and perpetuity. Their 



THE TEMPLES. 



55 



roads running from the city gates in all directions, and 
embracing the subjugated world in an iron net, at the centre 
of which the imperial spider sat ready to run ; their bridges, 
their stupendous aqueducts, their baths, temples, and coliseums, 
all indicate clearly enough that Baalbek was their work. They 
alone had the wealth, skill, and perseverance requisite for such 
an undertaking. But is Cyclopean architecture characteristic 
of the Romans ? It is not, but belongs to an anterior age. 
The coliseum is indeed the most massiye building ever com- 
pleted on earth, but it is built of small thin bricks ; the Arch 
of Titus is neither gigantic nor built of large stones ; nor do I 
remember observing very large stones in any Roman building. 
On the contrary, the stones of the Jerusalem Temple, the 
Pyramids of Egypt, the ruins of Deir il Kalla on the Lebanon, 
and of the great walls of Baalbek, are all Cyclopean, and seem 
to belong to a former age, when the ideas of force and solidity 
were very little tempered by those of beauty and symmetrical 
forms. The characteristics of this ancient colossal architecture 
of the Egyptians, Syrians, Jews, and Hindoos were immovable 
firmness, gigantic height, solidity and splendour; and the 
subtile ethereal Grreeks were the first to give prominence in 
their temples and public buildings to the ideas of simplicity, 
elegance, and beauty. 

II. The Temples. The temples are three in number, and 
evidently belong to the same age and the same general style 
of architecture ; two of them were probably finished and 
furnished with their idol- deities, the great one certainly never 
was ; they are Grecian in their style, and Roman in their 
origin, as is evident enough from the ruins themselves, as well 
as from the assertion of John of Malala, that Antoninus Pius 
built a temple to Jupiter, at Baalbek or Heliopolis, which was 
one of the wonders of the world. Inscriptions, also, in the 



56 



TEMPLE OF THE SUN. 



Latin language, found on the foundations of the great portico, 
indicate that the temple was dedicated to the great gods of 
Heliopolis, and that for the safety of Antoninus Pius and his 
august mother, Julia, certain pillars were erected by the piety 
of the inscribers. These temples then are of Eoman origin 
most probably. 

1st. The little temple stands a few perches distant from 
the two larger ones, in the midst of ruins, weeping willows, 
and filth of every kind. It is very small, and perfectly round. 
The peristyle is formed by a row of pillars round about, of 
the most striking beauty ; these are circular, smooth, and of 
exquisite elegance ; between each two pillars there is a niche 
for the images or gods of the heathen ; the entablature and 
cornice are of surpassing workmanship, and so curved a little 
inwards as to give the building the appearance of an octagon ; 
wi'eaths are suspended from the cornice to ornament the 
idols of the niches ; the door-posts are of single blocks ; the idea 
of the whole is simple, complete, and beautiful. It suggested 
to my mind the Parliament House of Dublin (the most beauti- 
ful Grecian building of modern times), but it is not one-fourth 
of the size. Lord Lindsay could see in the willows that 
surround it a picture of beauty weeping over genius. 

2nd. The Temple of the Sun, we name it so simply for distinc- 
tion. This is a rectangular building, three or four times as 
large as the little circular temple ; the north and south sides 
were adorned with twenty-eight noble pillars, fourteen on each 
side, of which thirteen are still standing ; at the west end 
were eight pillars of the same dimensions, of which three are 
standing, and one prostrate, though tolerably perfect. This 
is indeed a magnificent peristyle ; the columns are composed 
of three blocks, the shafts perfectly round, smooth, and pro- 
portional; the architrave is ornate, massive, and in perfect 
keepiug with the pillars and the rich cornice ; the carved ceil- 



GATEWAY OF THE TEMPLE. 



57 



ing of tTie peristyle is, in fact, an exquisite tissue of network 
done in stone, the massive centre being a series of circles, con- 
taining mythological devices of various kinds, while the angles, 
edges, and interstices are all filled with busts and figures of 
various kinds, but of exquisite beauty. These admirable 
pannels run round the entire building, and fill the mind with 
wonder as you behold them from the base of the pillars. Time 
seems to have done the pillars and the carving no injury ; 
they are as perfect as the day the building was finished. The 
entrance is on the east side, through a noble portico of two rows 
of pillars, of which only four are standing ; the pillars of the 
portico are distinguished from the peristyle by being fluted ; the 
frieze, cornice, entablature, &c., are in keeping with the general 
grandeur of the whole. The gateway or door of the temple 
is one of the wonders of the place ; Lord Lindsay calls it a 
matchless portal, and says every ornament that could be in- 
troduced into Corinthian architecture is lavished on it, and 
yet it is perfectly light and graceful. The arch is composed 
of nine great stones, three being at each side, and three in the 
centre ; the keystone has, by the earthquake which laid the 
temples and city in ruins, been shaken down some feet from its 
place, and hangs over you in a very threatening manner. An 
imperial eagle eyes you from above, and holds in his talons 
the wand of Mercury : calidimi, quidquid placuit jocoso con- 
dere furto:" (Hor. lib. i. ode 10, 7) intending, to all appearance, 
to practise his own tricks upon the thievish messenger of the 
gods ; and winged genii present you with fruits and wreaths of 
flowers. Examine the carved work of the door-case, and observe 
the beauty of the design and the perfection of the execution : 
the vine with its fruits and flowers; ears of corn of various kinds, 
wrought with consummate skill in the close-grained lime- 
stone, and intertwined in the most elaborate manner, make up 
the figures and design of this noble fragment of ancient art. 



58 



THE POLYTHEOIT. 



The interior of tlie temple is ornamented with fluted pillars 
adhering to the walls, with arches, niches, &c., in keeping 
with the style and grandeur of the whole building. Theodosius 
turned it into a Christian church. 

3rd. The Polytheon, or temple of the gods of Heliopolis, covers 
a very extensive area, and was evidently never completed. It 
was intended to be an open magnificent space, surrounded by 
walls, and embellished with pillars, niches, recesses, small 
temples, for the convenience of gods and men, priests and phi- 
losophers. Many of the ancient temples were open, uncovered 
buildings ; the pantheon, the coliseum, and the great temple of 
the gods of Heliopolis were of this sort, and in the genial climes 
of Italy and the East the shade of pillars, porticos, side pavi- 
lions, &c., would suffice for the comfort of the worshipper. The 
temple was never completed, and even the skilful architect 
can with difficulty trace the design ; you trace the grand 
entrance easily enough on the eastern side, by a flight of steps 
leading to the portico, flanked on either side by pavilions ; 
enter through the sublime portal, and you find yourself in a 
polygonal court, which was probably subsidiary to a second 
magnificent rectangle of 350 feet square, from which you pro- 
ceed through lofty colonnades to the portico of the Hieron, or 
holiest of all ; what this sanctum would have been had it been 
built, or how it would have been ornamented within and 
without, it is impossible to discover ; the courts are, however, 
surrounded with chambers for the ministers, and niches for 
the images of the gods ; small pillars and broken fragments 
of beautiful Egjrptian granite meet you now and then in these 
recesses, and everjrwhere the sculpture is singularly beautiful, 
but all these are insignificant compared with the massive 
fragments of pediments, pillars, and capitals which hem your 
path on every side ; six of these columns are indeed standing, 
surmounted by their colossal architrave, rising sublimely 



HISTORY OF BAALBEK. 



59 



seyenty-five feet above the ruinous desolation, and for sim- 
plicity, majesty, and comely proportions challenging and 
defying the world; these noble limestone pillars are com- 
posed of three blocks each, are seyen feet six inches in diameter, 
and stand from one another at the distance of nine feet. 
Seen from a distance, or in the moonlight, when dinmess leayes 
figure and boundaries undefined, they present a still more 
striking appearance ; they are suryiyors of the general desola- 
tion, and claim the sympathies of the spectator as a kind of 
martyr-monuments. Job's messengers, who haye escaped the 
ravages of man and time, and the earthquake shocks of ages, 
to tell to future generations their confused but interesting 
tale. 

III. Its History. — The name ^pl Baalbek, which in 
defiance of the Greek attempts to change it into Heliopolis, 
the City of the Sun, it still retains, shows it to be of a very 
early origin. Compare similar compounds in the following 
passages: Jud. yiii. 33 ; ix. 4. Jos. ix. 17. 2 Chron. xxyi. 7. 
Jud. iii. 3. 1 Chron. y. 23. Numb, xxxii. 38. 1 Chron. y. 8, 
&c. Baal from and (comp. n^bv K^** Deut. xxi. 5), 
and denoting superiority, was applied to the man as dis- 
tinguished from the woman, and hence taken as ruler and 
lord; it was soon applied almost imiyersally to the rulers of 
the invisible world, whose most glorious manifestation and 
representative was their sun. Baal's worship thus became 
universal, and in the languages and monuments of the nations 
can be clearly and definitely traced from Persia to Babylon, 
and from Babylon to the British isles. Here, however, this 
form of idolatry ruled supreme ; the whole valley was dedi- 
cated to him, and his massive temple of Cyclopean architec- 
ture was called Baalbek. The city was undoubtedly under 
the dominion of Solomon ; he may have made it one of his 



60 



REFLECTIONS. 



store- cities, and cultivated a royal vinery in tlie vicinity 
(Song viii. 11), for he bnilt ''Baalath. and Tadmor (Palmyra) 
in tlie wilderness, in the land" (1 Kings ix. 18). Under the 
Macedonian kings of Antioch it must, from its position and 
the fertility of the valley, have been an important place ; the 
Eomans made it one of their military stations in the time of 
Augustus. Christianity, as we learn from Eusebius, made 
early progress in the city, and lifted up its voice against the 
fearful and polluting worship of Yenus and the Sun, until 
Constantino prohibited their beastly idolatries by an imperial 
edict. The city became Christian, and continued so imtil the 
conquerors from the Arabian peninsula, with the sword in the 
one hand and the Koran in the other, imposed upon it, after 
the fall of Damascus, a foreign tyranny and a false religion. 
Obaidah, the commander of the Moslems, treated the inhabi- 
tants mildly, notwithstanding their vaKant defence, and the 
city continued an important place. Tamerlane, the Tartar, 
destroyed both Baalbek and Damascus in 1401 ; and what 
time and the ravages of plundering hordes left hitherto 
untouched, was finally destroyed in 1759, when an earth- 
quake laid the city and the temples in ruins. It has now 
some 4,000 inhabitants, of whom the majority are Moslems ; 
it is the residence of a Greek bishop, and the political 
administration is conducted by an Amir, under the authority 
of the Pasha of Damascus. The whole district contains 
11,000 inhabitants, and these, I may add, are in filth and 
wretchedness, in the midst of one of the most fertile valleys 
in the world. Many of the villages cannot furnish seed-corn 
for their fields, but must receive it from the merchants of 
Damascus, for which they return one-third of the produce in 
the harvest. But now let us forget, if we can, the ruins 
natural and moral that surround us, and indulge in a few 
reflections suggested by the whole subject. 



PARTIALITY OF HISTORY. 



61 



lY. 1st. We observe that districts as well as countries, vil- 
lages as well as nations, do often retain through ages, a distinc- 
tive character in defiance of all political and religious changes. 
Lebanon is still the refuge and asylum for political offenders, 
as it was in the days of Joshua. Jericho is still the wickedest 
place in the land, and no other region abounds with so many 
thieves (Luke x. 30). Dr. Macgowan and his son were 
attacked at the Sea of Galilee, by a maniac very like those 
whom the Lord met and healed by the same waters ; and 
Baalbek is no exception to the rule. The Septuagint translates 
the prophets of Baal by the words, w po(j)r}r ai rY]Q aicr^ui^r^c 
(1 Kings xviii. 19, 25) the prophets of shame; see Rev. 
iii. 18, comp. with xvi. 15 ; Jerubaal is called (comp. Jud. 
vi. 32 with 2 Sam. xi. 21) JeTu-besheth, r]1D2—D]D2 pu- 
denda. Shame; so that the expression, in the common accep- 
tation of the people, Baal and Shame, priests of Baal and 
priests of Shame, were one and the same thing ; and Eusebius 
testifies that the inhabitants were not only addicted to the 
worship of the sun, from which the city took its name 
(HeliopoKs), but also to Yenus, ob fanum A(^|OoStrr/c Acpa- 
KLTi^og, Yeneris Aphacitidis in qua viri peregrinis quibusque 
uxores filiasque impune prostituebant and we can testify, 
that in all our journey ings through the Holy Land, or Sjrm 
in general, we have lighted upon no spot which sustains more 
fully its ancient character than Baalbek. 

2nd. We learn the partiality of history from these ruins. 
Who laid these foundations ? What Angelo or Wren or 
Paxton conceived the splendid design of these temples? 
What princes, merchants, and wealthy citizens headed the 
subscription lists for such noble and magnificent works ? We 
know not. History is silent. The names of conquerors, 
murderers, traitors, misanthropes, &c., are carefully preserved 
by history, but the date, the designers, and even the purpose 



62 



GIBBON QUESTIONED. 



of these Cyclopean walls are veiled in darkness. This is 
another proof of the " vanity of human wishes" — 

" Why should a monument give you or me hopes 
"^^en not a pinch of dust remains of Cheops?" 

Or are the names of Michael Angelo, Sir C. Wren, and 
Sir E/. Paxton, to pass away from the records of nations and 
languages, so that some future traveller shall examine a 
pillar of St. Peter's, or St. Paul's, inquiring in vain for the 
architect's name? Then, indeed, if our hopes of fame be 
placed upon earthly things, we may say with the poet — 

" But glory's glory ; and if you would find 
What that is, ask the pig who sees the mnd." 

We may take occasion from this silence of history con- 
cerning Baalbek, to ask Mr. Gibbon a question or two. He 
has been pleased, in his sneering Mephistopheles manner, to 
suggest doubts concerning the darkness at the crucifixion, 
because Seneca and Pliny the elder do not mention it, 
although they both lived in that age, and the latter devoted 
a whole chapter to earthquakes, eclipses, and supernatural 
occurrences. I reply, if Plin}^ laboured as hard as Gibbon 
says he did, in collecting the records of such preternatural 
phenomena, he must have labom-ed without success, for the 
chapter referred to contains only a few lines. But, secondly, 
we are told by travellers of enormous ruins at Baalbek ; 
building stones seventy feet long and proportionally massive ; 
temples of the noblest form and Grecian architecture. How 
is this ! should not the philosophic historian crj ? There can 
be no such buildings ; they are not mentioned by the philo- 
sophers of Greece and Rome ; according to the descriptions 
of these travellers, they must have been built in a philosophic 
age, yet no poet alludes to them, and no naturalist has men- 



ENDURANCE OF RELIGIOUS FEELINGS. 



63 



tioned even their names ; and, therefore, a philosoplier may be 
permitted to have the benefit of a doubt concerning these 
supposed temples and ruins. Doubt on ! But the ruins are 
there! Yes, the mighty walls are there, though the histo- 
rians are silent ; and darkness covered the land at the cruci- 
fixion, though Pliny does not mention it ; and our belief in 
events must rest on the natural and proper evidence for 
them, though sceptics refuse to be convinced by it. But 
accuracy and fair dealing are not characteristic of would-be 
sophists and unbelievers, and Plato acknowledges, of philo- 
sophers in general, that in most cases their manners are a 
sufficient refutation of their speculations. noXu /xeytarr/ Kai 
iyvporaTT] ^iaj3oXr/ yiyvarai (l)i\o(TO(f)iag ^la tovq roiavra 
(j>a(7KovTag ^TTirrj^sveiu. Pepub. Kb. iv. 

3rd. We may learn from these temples the strength and 
prevalence of religious feelings in the human race. We are 
made for worship and adoration, and the longing after some- 
thing perfect, glorious, and immortal, on which we may 
safely rest in the midst of infinite change and successions, is 
felt equally by the most refined nations and the ignorant 
heathen — 

" Whose untutored mind 
Sees God in clouds and hears him in the wind." 

In these niches were the images of the gods ; they repre- 
sented the powers and properties of the invisible deities, and 
were worshipped only as suggestive of the divinity. Cicero 
declares (in Yerrem, Actio ii. lib. iv. 43), that the Sicilians 
had a venerable brazen image of the Tyrian Hercules, at 
Agrigentum, to whom they ofiered prayers and gratulations, 
and whose mouth and chin were worn ofi" by the kisses of the 
multitude ; the Pomans do the same in the present day, save 
that they are content with kissing the toe of St. Peter's 



64 



MODES OF ADORATION. 



image, wHch too is rubbed away by tbe kisses of bis wor- 
sbippers ; tbe Indian offers bis rice and gee, and tbe Italian 
cburcbes are bung round witb votive offerings to tbe Yirgin 
and tbe saints. Tbe Hindoos bave ceremonies to bring tbe 
divinity into tbe images before tbey can be proper objects 
of veneration, and tbe papists also bave a service for con- 
secrating tbem ; tbe Siamese Pagans, after tbe priests' bene- 
diction, bow and kiss tbe images, and tben marcb off in good 
order ; every one in tbe Grreek cburcb (says Dr. King), before 
be communicates, kisses tbe images (be sbould bave said 
pictures) of Jesus and tbe Yirgin and some otbers. Tbe 
Council of Trent decides tbat we sbould bow before, kiss, 
and worsbip images. Tbe inbabitants of Malta move tbeir 
bat to tbe Yirgin as tbey pass tbe corners of tbe streets wbere 
sbe stands. Lucian (Ti^pi Opyj](j^wg) tells us tbat tbe ancient 
Greeks worsbipped tbe sun, Kv<javTovq rriv \upa, kissing tbe 
band; and Apuleius, of tbe second century, speaking of a 
Cbristian, says, "Si fanum aliquod praeteat nefas babet 
adorandi gratia manimi labris admovere;" — If be passes by 
a temple be deems it wicked to move bis band to bis lips in 
token of adoration. Tbe Hebrews were commanded of tbe 
Lord, 12"pt^J, to kiss tbe Son, bowever, as tbe true image 
of tbe invisible Grod, and tbe one Mediator between Grod and 
man. Tbis universal worsbip, be it good or bad, be it rigbtly 
or wrongly directed, sbows tbat man is and must be from bis 
very nature a religious being. Tbis longing, too, of tbe 
clouded embodied spirit for sometbing visible and tangible 
as tbe object of veneration and trust, bas been graciously 
gratified in tbe incarnation of tbe eternal Son, tbe one only 
image of tbe invisible Grod, tbrougb wbom we can approacb 
tbe Lord our God witb acceptance and peace. Out of tbis 
dark strong feeling bas arisen tbe greater part of tbe monu- 
ments of ancient and modern times, and it is no mean argu- 



EVENING AT BAALBEK. 



60 



ment for the trutL. of our holy religion, that it has met these 
wants of our nature, and guided our erring convictions into 
the certainties of life and immortality. 

4th. Can we not learn something of national character 
from these ruins ? Yes, we may. The pyramids, and all 
that remains of that early period in Egypt and Syria, espe- 
cially the old wall at Baalbek, suppose not only a stupid, 
stolid, sombre, idolatrous, servile mass of people, who could 
be harnessed to daily tasks by the will of a master, but also 
that the mental characteristics of the nations were grave, 
heavy, somnolent, as distinguished from the Greeks, whose 
temples, dedicated to the winds or the graces, revealed with 
their light beautiful carpentry in stone the subtile, ethereal 
character of that enterprising people. The Romans are 
sufficiently distinguished by their arch surmounting their 
pantheons, incorporated in their coliseums, carrying them 
over all waters, bespanning the subject world. Power, per- 
severance, and enormous wealth, indomitable will, and all- 
conquering resolve, are suggested to the mind by the ruins 
they have left. 

5th. Come now, finally, and let us enjoy the glories of the 
setting sun. The melting heat of the day has subsided into 
the balmy freshness of the evening, and the orb of day 
retires blandly like a mild material god. 

" And now on Syria's land of roses, 
Softly tlie light of eve reposes, 
And, like a glory, the broad sun, 
Hangs over sainted Lebanon." 

I^ature is going to rest ; the travellers are approaching their 
resting-place in the Khan, where, if they be not happy, it 
will not be for want of company ; mules, donkeys, and camels 
take up their quarters for the night, amidst mutual con- 

F 



66 



ANTIQUITIES. 



gratulations and tTie tinkling of bells ; the Grreek biskop 
in kis knt-catkedral ckants, amidst kis ortkodox followers, 
tke psalms of tke day ; and tke slow solemn Moslems, at tke 
sound of tke Miiezzen, commences kis accustomed genu- 
flexions and criminatory prayers ; tke willows are weeping 
over tke ruins of tke temples ; darkness is coming on, 

" And all the air a solemn stillness holds 
Save where the beetle wings his lonely flight, 
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds." 

And kigk over tkis variegated scene of natm^e and art tke 
six massy pillars of tke great temple rise in solitary grandeur 
to arrest tke attention and attract tke eye. Tke meandering 
streams from tke great fountain, Ras il Ain, contribute to 
tke general impression by tkeir somniferous murmurs. Here 
is an invalid, pale and emaciated, wko kas come to enjoy tke 
waters, and wko tells you, " tke air is tke medicine, tke fleas 
are tke sm^geon, and tkere is no place like Baalbek." Tkere 
comes an antiquarian, wko, kearing you are Englisk, presents 
you kis collection, among wkick tkere is one old invaluable 
specimen — a penny of George tke Tkird's — for wkick ke 
expects a ransom ; but tke mountain tops kave now lost tkeir 
golden kues, tke brigkt stars wkick tke patriarck could not 
number are beginning to appear, and tke moon, travelling in 
brigktness, invites tke traveller to repose. Farewell. 



DAMASCUS ITS SITE. 



67 



CHAPTER lY. 

DAMASCUS. AN EASTERN AND A WESTERN CITY COMPARED. 

1st. As seen from above ; 2nd. As to Smoke and Clouds ; 3rd. The Approach 
to the City described ; 4th. Suburbs, Villas, single Houses ; 5th. Life, 
motion, stir, business, confusion; 6th. The lajdng out and disposition of 
the City; 7th. Compared as to Hotels and Public Buildings; 8th. As 
to Literature, Books, Paintings, Fine Arts, &c. ; 9th. As to Knowledge, 
current Literature, Newspapers, &c.; 10th, Compared as to public Amuse- 
ments; 11th. The Veiled Ladies; 12th. A Peep into the Streets of 
Damascus. 

We toucL. once more tlie magic lamp, and tlie pilgrims of tlie 
East are transported to a noble plain, extending from Anti- 
lebanon to tlie Euphrates, and from tlie Syrian desert north- 
ward towards Aleppo. This plain, inferior perhaps to that of 
the Ganges or the Mississippi in extent, yields to neither in 
fertility, and exceeds them both in historic fame. Here 
mighty kingdoms flourished, and untold millions of the 
human race found their home, their occupation, and their 
grave. IN^ineyeh and Babylon ruled over this wide domain, 
and gave the first examples of universal monarchies. Alex- 
ander the Great made his capital on the Euphrates ; and 
Palmyra, Bagdad, and Damascus ruled over wide and 
populous empires ; and if the cities be diminished, and the 
fairest regions of the earth depopulated, and prowling 
plundering !N^omades make their transient home upon the 
ruins of former greatness, the cause is not to be found in an 
altered clime or an angry God, but in the licentiousness and 
tyranny of man. Let not the heart brood over the past too 

F 2 



68 



RUIN OF DAMASCUS FORETOLD. 



mucli, nor seek from these ruins of empires to gather 
arguments for a meagre and hapless philosophy, whose end 
is either the everlasting circle of the Pantheists, or the 
everlasting death of Yolney and his followers. On the 
contrary with the history of the past under our feet, and 
the word of God in our hands, we draw hope, and faith, 
and confidence in a strong and invisible God from the 
desolations through which we pass. Has not the word of 
the Lord declared that thus it should be ? Did Babylon, 
Tyre, Jerusalem, and all the ancient monarchies fall un- 
warned ? Did not their iniquity bring them to nothing ? 
Did they not all depart from the acknowledgment of God, 
and thereby ensure their destruction ? 

*' All these forgot that heavenly One, 
Who human glory mars : 
Who hangs as gems around his throne 
The sun, and moon, and stars. 

^' His breath hath sunk the fleets of Tyre, 
Proud Nineveh is gone , 
His feet, like the consuming fire. 
Have trampled Babylon. 

" We turn with hope to that bright field, 
Where glorious visions smile. 
Which he the Prophet Seer beheld. 
In Patmos^ lonely isle." 

Be this our polar star ; be this our guiding light in all our 
wanderings, namely, the word of God, which can brighten 
our darkest forebodings with tints of glory, and fill us with 
perfect confidence in the Divine Euler of our world. 

" It is not for me to be seeking for bliss. 
Or fixing my hopes on a region like this ; 
I look for a city which hands have not piled, 
I pant for a country by sin undefiled." 



DAMASCUS AND LONDON COMPARED. 



69 



In this state of mind we shall be in some degree qualified to 
enter into new scenes and new circumstances, and realise an 
overruling wisdom and providence in modes of life and forms 
of civilisation so different from our own. 

Damascus is one of the greatest and most truly Oriental 
cities in the world ; let us, therefore, for our amusement and 
instruction, compare it in its general external features with 
London^ or any other tvestern city. In this we may, perhaps, 
be able to get a clear idea of an Oriental city. 

1st. From the dome of St. Paulas you behold London lying 
before and around, like a wide waving endless sea of slates, 
tiles, buildings, churches, spires and monimients of all kinds. 
The eye is relieved with the heights and the hollows, the 
great and the little, the lowly lanes and the heaven-pointing 
spires. In Damascus the scene is very different ; there is 
much less variety ; no sj)ires, but multitudes of domes upon 
the mosques, and baths surmounted by little minarets. The 
houses are all flat- roofed, and the hue of the whole is a dim 
ash colour. A stillness like that of the dead reigns over the 
whole scene, and the city, surrounded with its celebrated and 
evergreen gardens, suggests the idea of a ship sailing away 
through an ocean of verdure. Dun- walls, flat-roofs, domes 
and minarets, the stillness of death and the verdure of 
paradise, make up the elements of this most charming 
Oriental scene. Tradition tells that Mohammed refused to 
enter the city, saying, " As there is only one paradise allotted 
to man, I shall reserve mine for the future world." 

2nd. London, Edinburgh, Grlasgow, and most large 
western cities, are very often surmounted with clouds of 
smoke, owing to the coldness of the climate and the great 
consumption of coals. The sky over Damascus appears as 
bright and serene as elsewhere ; the climate renders, for the 
greater part of the year, little or no fire necessary ; and the 



70 DAMASCUS AND LONDON. 

little that is used, is not from coals, but wood or charcoal ; 
the rooms have neither chimneys nor fire-places, and, except 
for the preparation of the supper, fire is rarely required 
during the course of the day. Hence the Oriental city is 
not encircled with a graceful wreath of smoke, to remind 
you either of an ungenial clime, or the progress of mechanical 
genius. 

3rd. But approach the city. All seems very still and quiet. 
Is it an enchanted capital, whose inhabitants have been turned 
into stone or brass ? JSTo ; but the streets are not paved ; 
there are no wheel carriages of any kind ; the shoes, more 
like foot-gloves than shoes, have no nails ; no cotton-mills 
lift up their voice in the streets ; all those noisy triumphs of 
mechanical genius, in the way of forging, spinning, weaving, 
beetling, which are so frequent among us, are unknown in 
Damascus. The Easterns hold on their old course steadily, 
and yield to no seductions of novelty; the water-pmnp was in- 
vented in Alexandria, but the inhabitants prefer the ancient 
well and bucket. But if the ear is not saluted with the 
roar and turbulence of mills, forges, and mechanical opera- 
tions, Damascus has its own peculiar sounds, not less various 
and interesting in their way. The streets are filled with 
innumerable dogs, lean, lazy, and hmigry-like ; mules, 
donkeys, camels, dromedaries, &c., meet and mingle in those 
narrow streets, and impress both the eye and the ear of the 
traveller with a pure and perfect idea of Orientalism. 

4th. Our British cities spread out, as it were indefinitely, into 
the country, in the way of parks, gardens, summer-houses, 
gentlemen's seats, and smiling villages. It is not so in the 
East. The city is within the walls, and all Avithout is gar- 
dens as at Damascus, or desert as at Jerusalem. Single 
houses are, in any country, the proof of the supremacy 
of law as well as of the respectability and independence 



DAMASCUS AND LOXDON. 



71 



of labour. Life and property have not attained perfect 
security in the East ; a pistol, or ratlier a musket, \7as pre- 
sented at my breast, within half a mile of Damascus, in 
broad daylight. These noble gardens have no inhabitants, 
nor do any fine cottages, tasteful houses, or princely palaces, 
adorn this fertile region. Within the city you are safe — with- 
out are dogs (Rev. xxii. 15), insecurity of property, and the 
liability of being shot. You haye, indeed, no protection 
but Providence, if you believe in that ; or your pistols, if 
you are inclined, like the Turks, to take the matter into your 
own hands. The whole population, therefore, live either in 
cities or villages, except in such regions as Beyrout and 
Algiers, where European influence and j)ower prevail. There 
you have gardens and single houses, much after the English 
fashion. 

5th. But place a Damascene at Charing Cross, or Cheap- 
side, and what do you think would amaze him most ? The 
number of vehicles, undoubtedly. He would say, ~\^Tien will 
this stream of cars, cabs, coaches, carriages, omnibuses of 
every shape and size, have an end ? Ai^e the peoj)le mad ? 
Can they not take their time ? But had the Oriental nations 
of antiquity no wheel carriages ? They had ; the J ews 
and Egyptians had them, the Greeks and the Romans had 
them, and perhaps they may exist in some parts of the East 
to the present time. Here in Damascus there are none ; the 
streets are not formed for them. The horses are trained only 
for riding. There are no common, levelled, and well-ordered 
pubKc roads ; and the carriage which Mr. Farren, the consul- 
general of Syria, brought with him, was, I believe, never 
once used. Our fathers used no coaches ; they preferred the 
more manly exercise of horsemanship, and yielded the soft 
eflfeminate luxury of the coach to the ladies. Whirlicotes were 
used in England in 1398, for the mother of Richard II. used 



72 



DAMASCUS AND LONDON. 



one in fleeing from tlie rebellious people. They were afterwards 
disused, as effeminate and unnational, until, in 1580, the 
Earl of Arundale introduced the spring-coach from Germany 
or France, which speedily became popular with the nobility. 
In 1601, they were forbidden by the parliament as effeminate, 
yet, in defiance of all legislation, they were common enough 
in the city of London in 1605. In the year 1625, hackney 
coaches were established, and licensed; and in 1778, the 
number of coaches in England was 23,000, which paid 
117,000/. duty. The origin of the easy suspension, or 
spring-coach, is ascribed to Hungary, and the post-chaise 
we owe to France. In London there are now about 900 
omnibuses, each of which takes, in sixpences, about 1,000/. 
annually. Such is the present state of coaching. How 
different is Damascus ! And how different must the aspect 
of the streets appear ! 

6th. With us the city is laid out in streets, squares, 
crescents, royal circuits, and such-like devices of beauty and 
regularity. This is the case particularly in the West Ends 
and newer parts of our cities and towns. There is nothing 
of this in Damascus, or any of the eastern cities that I have 
seen ; squares, crescents, and circuits are unknown. The 
streets are extremely irregular, crooked, winding, and narrow ; 
which seems to arise out of the anxiety to fijid a protection 
from the sun. In the narrower streets, where the houses are 
high, the sun's rays are effectually excluded; and in the 
wider ones, where this is not attainable, the numerous wind- 
ings and angles afford salient points where the passenger may 
for a moment or two enjoy the shade. This may appear 
trifling, but I have often found the heat of the solar rays so 
intense and unendurable that even the sun-burnt Bedouin, 
the children of the desert, were glad of the least passing 
shade, the least momentary shelter, from the intolerable heat. 



DAMASCUS AND LONDON. 



73 



In the bazaars of Damascus, on tlie contrary, tlie streets or 
avenues are laid out with the greatest regularity, and as 
straight as possible. In the heat of the day these are nearly 
deserted; business is at a stand; the merchant is reclining 
with the pipe in his mouth, in a state of semi- somnolency, in 
which the influence of opium or the odour of the redolent 
weed has carried the fertile imagination into the regions of 
celestial ease, where the blue-eyed houries make a paradise 
more pleasing than even Demesk il Sham. Awnings are 
sometimes erected to protect these bazaars from the sun ; 
vines, too, are in some places so trained as to form over your 
head an agreeable defence, and always and everywhere in 
these dog-days ices, sherbets, and draughts of cooling water 
are present to your acceptance at a very moderate price. In 
an eastern city you have no prospect. With us you can see 
a considerable way along the streets. In Damascus you feel 
absolutely isolated; the streets are so narrow and crooked 
that at the most you can rarely see a perch before you, and 
nothing that does meet the eye in the way of buildings has 
the least attraction. Irregularity in style and clumsiness of 
execution, combined with the absence of fine doors, all win- 
dows, everything in the shape of fronts, railings, ornaments, 
&c., make the impression in that respect very disagreeable. 
In our streets we are pleased with large houses, fine rows of 
large windows, tastefully arranged doors and entrances ; 
everything seems to convey the idea of order, attention, 
cleanliness, combined with the possession of wealth and the 
consciousness that it is our own. We conceal nothing, for we 
have no motive to conceal. Our house is our palace, and though 
the winds may whistle through our dilapidated halls, the 
king himself dare not enter without our permission. Freedom 
has increased our property, and our wealth has enhanced the 
value of our freedom. Our temptation is not to concealment, 



74 



DAMASCUS AND LONDON. 



but to ostentation and unnecessary display. This tendency 
or temptation among us stands in connection witli our cha- 
racter as a highly- civilised and commercial nation. Great 
transactions cannot be carried on without credit, and credit 
is necessarily based on the belief of wealth; so that yery 
often, where there may be little real property, it may be most 
desirable that there should be the appearance of it. This 
principle of display, our system of banking, our mercantile 
character, and our adherence to truth in our dealings with 
one another, are all most closely interwoven ; and, in con- 
nection with religious and political liberty, act and re- act 
reciprocally upon each other, and influence very considerably 
the national tastes. The mean, low door in Damascus tells 
you of tyranny, concealment, and the want of confidence in 
public justice. Misery without and splendour within is a 
principle which befits a land where paper is just paper, what- ' 
ever name it bears ; where gold is the only circulating 
medium ; where a man's own house is his bank ; and where 
the suspicion of being rich may make him a prey to the rapa- 
city of the Government. On the contrary, the noble streets, 
squares, crescents, &c., of our modern cities are clear indica- 
tions, not only of great wealth and power, but also of some- 
thing far dearer and nobler — namely, that confidence in one 
another, formed by myriads of concurring circumstances, of 
which Christianity is one of the mightiest, and out of which 
flow most of the blessings of European civilisation and free 
political institutions. But what is the use of that stone by 
the door-post ? These stones are the steps from which ladies 
mount their donkeys, mules, and horses. Nor should you 
think this strange. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 
Paris presented these mounting- stones at all the angles of the 
streets, and other convenient places. At Frankfort there was 
a certain gate at which these conveniences were prepared for 



DAMASCUS AND LONDON. 



75 



the emperor and the magnates of the German Diet ; and I 
have no doubt that, in the days of feudality and knightly 
glory, London was not behind its neighbours in this respect. 

7th. Our cities are filled and ornamented with hotels, coflPee- 
houses, gin-palaces, hospitals, workhouses, prisons, and such 
like conspicuous buildings. Generally speaking, there is 
none of these in the East. Hospitals and institutions for 
the sick and the poor were the offspring of Christianity, 
and are, I am inclined to think, pecuKar to Christian lands ; 
gin, rum, schnaps, alcohol, wine, and all intoxicating drinks 
are in Mohammedan countries forbidden, and indulgence 
in them must be reckoned among the private luxuries of the 
Moslems ; and the Christians, oppressed and ground down 
by the tyranny of many ages, are too weak and cowardly 
to oppose the popular and imperial will. There are there- 
fore in the streets of Damascus no pubKc-hoLises, nor tempting 
signs, inviting the traveller to take his ease at his inn. 
Indeed, in bringing wine to my house (noble wine at three- 
pence a bottle), the Christian wine merchants always took the 
precaution to conceal it, as I had my dwelling in the Moham- 
medan quarter. There are few prisons in the East, and these 
are very wretched. Imprisonment as a punishment is little 
practised, and is altogether unsuited to the Mohammedan law 
and mode of thinldng. Life is not so sacred as with us. It 
is urged that if a man deserves to be confined as a dangerous 
member of society, he deserves to die ; society will never 
miss him, and some expenses will be spared ; " Off with 
his head ; so much for Buckingham." Hence in Damascus, 
and the East generally, they are not liable to the reproach 
which is sometimes brought against us — that the best house in 
the country is the jail. Besides, in the East, punishment fol- 
lows crime instantaneously. The judge, the mufti, the prisoner, 
and the executioner, are all in the court at the same time. 



76 



DAMASCUS AND LONDON. 



As soon as tlie sentence is delivered, the back is made bare, 
the donkey is ready (for perjury in Damascus the man rides 
through the city mth his face to the tail), or the head falls, 
according to the crime, in the presence of all the people. 
Awful severity, and the rapidity of the lightning are the 
principles of their laws ; nor do they deem it necessary to 
make the exact and minute distinctions of crime that we do. 
The object is to prevent crime, and this is most effectually 
done by the principle of terror and the certainty of immediate 
punishment. A certain baker in Constantinople used false 
weights in selling his bread, the Sultan ordered him to be 
roasted alive in his own oven, and afterwards boasted that 
this one act of severity had effectually prevented all similar 
crimes. Here you see the principle of government in the 
East ; it is nothing but terror or religious fanaticism. As to 
coffee-houses, there are plenty of them in Damascus, but 
the}^ can hardly be called houses, much less jpalaces ; they 
are open courts with fountains of water, sheltered from the 
sun, and in many cases little stools, some six inches high, 
on which, if you do not prefer the ground, you can rest while 
you enjoy your sherbet, coffee, and tobacco. Pipes, nargilies 
(water pipes), ices, eau sucre, sherbets, and fruits of all kinds 
are in abundance, and for the lowest possible price ; these 
caffes are very quiet, there is no excitement, no reading of 
newsj)apers, no discussion of politics and rehgion, nor fiery 
demagogue nor popular orator to mislead the people ; no 
attic wit provokes the smile, and no bold repartee calls forth 
applauding laughter on the other side. But yet they have 
their own amusements, and they plaj^ earnestly both at games 
of chance and games of skill. The traveller tells his escapes 
and dangers to an admiring little circle ; the story-teller 
repeats one of the ^'Thousand and One Nights" to a wondering 
audience ; and if memory fails, the imagination, fertile as an 



DAMASCUS AND LONDON. 



77 



Oriental spring, supplies its boundless stores. Fancy with, us 
is something brilliant and beautiful, from its rare appearances ; 
it shews bright spots on the dark groimd of discourse, and 
reveals here and there golden tints and rosy hues ; it corus- 
cates like flashes of lightning, and is pleasing mainly because 
it is a twinkling and not a steady light. Here the Easterns 
differ from us entirely ; their stories, tales, and wonders are 
of the true supernatural style, and imagination holds its 
steady flight, disregarding all impediments and all improba- 
bilities whatever ; cities are turned into lakes, lakes into 
islands, men, women, and whole populations are enchanted 
with infinite ease, and again disenchanted by the adroitness 
of some black-eyed maiden. In one retired corner of a coffee- 
house in Damascus, you may find more imagination than 
in the writings of Edmund Burke, and yet the two forms of 
imagination are as different as the East is from the West. 

We have in the East great Khans, but they bear little 
relation to our hotels. Ring, cat, and pay is not the law in 
the East ; they have no bells in Damascus, nor even the 
silver call or whistle which our grandmothers used in Eng- 
land. Bells in churches and in houses are alike an abomina- 
tion to the Moslems, and the Maronites alone, and by the 
interference of the Government, have a right to use them. 
The Khan in Damascus is a large circular building, sur- 
mounted by a noble dome, in which the great merchants 
have their goods and wares of all kinds ; in which the tra- 
veller can find a resting place for himself and his camels, and 
water from the central fountain, but there are no tables 
spread for the traveller, and no beds ready made for the 
weary pilgrims ; you must find your dinner as you best can, 
make your own bed, and when you rise take it up and walk. 
The Khan Assad Pasha (built by that Governor), is however 
a very noble building, and excites not a little astonishment 



78 



DAMASCUS AND LONDON. 



among tlie Orientals, thougli M. Lamartine's rhetoric is 
highly exaggerated. The Khans on the public roads are 
merely enclosures, where you can find shelter for the night 
and water for your camels. I passed a night in the Khan 
at Demas, in which we found sheep, hens, ducks, men, 
women, and children all sleeping comfortably together on the 
•common floor, and when the ladies seemed alarmed at such in- 
mates of the hotel, the woman of the Khan assured us that the 
sheep were very quiet and would not injure us, which indeed 
we found to be quite true. The door remained open the whole 
night, the dogs were attracted by our provisions, and the 
myriads of insects of all kinds, cavalry, infantry, and artillery, 
which attacked us without intermission, rendered that night one 
of the most memorable in our lives. Here the "^vWoro^oryig 
of Lucian might have found good game, and at the same time 
a fine example of Oriental hotels. 

8th. In European cities your attention is arrested by book- 
shops, pictures, placards, caricatures, &c. ; now in Damascus 
we have nothing of the sort. Among the Jews you may find 
a few miserable stalls, from which you may pick up an old copy 
of the Talmud, or some old rabbinical prayer-book. The old 
Sheildi who sold me the Koran, laid his hand upon his neck, 
and told me to be silent, for were it known that he had done 
so he might lose his head ; in the schools they are taught only 
to read the Koran, and to master the simplest elements of 
arithmetic and writing. Men of letters there are at present 
none, and the highest of their sciences is the knowledge of 
grammar. When I Kved in Damascus, some wit (the first 
thing of the kind known) uttered a pun or squib, reflecting 
on the corpulency of the Pasha, and he was banished for it ; 
the old observation of the caliph, as he fired the Alexandrine 
library, holds true in the East still — '^If the books agree with 
the Koran, they are useless ; if they oppose it, they are 



BOOKS PICTURES NEWSPAPERS. 



79 



noxious; and in both cases they are unnecessary." The 
Christians are poor and oppressed, especiallj^ the Greek church 
in Syria, and their literature is meagre and unimportant ; few 
of them can read in his native dress, Fim il Dehad, him of the 
Grolden Mouth, whom they admire so much, and none of them 
can imitate him. The Greek Catholics, but more especially 
the Maronites, have been more active in the way of grammars, 
lexicons, and works of a theological nature, and some of the stan- 
dard works of the Papacy have been translated into the Arabic 
by the Jesuits. The Ajnerican missionaries have, dui^ing the 
last quarter of a century and more, been distributing religious 
books, and inspiring a taste for reading and inquiry, and their 
noble printing estabhshment at Beyrout produces its rich 
literary harvest every year. Still you see no books or book- 
shops in the cities; and as for pictures the Moslems have a 
religious abhorrence of them ; besides the Christians abuse them, 
the idolaters worship them, and the prophet forbids them. 
They have no taste for images or pictures, and their constant 
reply, when the subject is mentioned, is a noble sa}^g of the 
prophet, God is one, no fancy can picture him ; no imagina- 
tion can conceive him, no judgment can comprehend him ; he 
is the Lord of the worlds." The Turks were right. Pidl 
down the nests and the rooks will fly away, contains a good 
deal of true philosophy; an Italian taste for painting and 
music is a poor compensation for the image-worship and 
mariolatry of the land. You must not expect book- shops in 
Damascus. 

9th. But has not Damascus one himdred thousand inhabi- 
tants? says the traveller. Where are their newspapers, 
spreading light and knowledge through a portion of the sixty 
millions who use the noble Arabic language ? Take me to 
the office of some Oriental Sun, Times, Globe, or Morning 
Chronicle ? There is no such thing. Even in Constantinople 



80 



NEED OF A NEWSPAPEE. 



there is only one newspaper, and the one half of it is in 
Turkish, and the other in French. Tyranny and superstition, 
like two monstrous millstones, rest upon and compress the 
energies of the Oriental nations ; even Grreece, the fountain of 
science and literary and mental actiyity, has been blotted from 
the rank of nations, and the inquisitive ideology of its people 
all but annihilated by the stern rule of the Turks. A good 
newspaper, published in the Arabic language, is one of the 
greatest wants of the East, and for benevolent Christian minds 
I cannot easily conceive a nobler object. Let a number of 
gentlemen unite, and, with the requisite capital at their dis- 
posal, establish at Damascus, Beyrout, or, more centrally still, 
Malta, a good newspaper, in which the political events of the 
day will be stated as well as the argument for the Christian 
religion ; and they will do more, in my opinion, than has 
been done for ages to spread the principles of civilisation, and 
break to pieces the iron net of false faith and false opinion 
imder Avhich the Orient lies bound. The Arabs are a subtle, 
inquisitive, and hospitable nation, and the government at 
Damascus is a foreign government, as foreign, unnatural, and, 
I may add, as hated, as a French one would be in London, and 
if in any way their mental and bodily chains could be broken, 
there would be let loose among the torpid nations of the East 
a mighty impulsive force, which, by means of science, literature, 
and general information, might pioneer the way for a bright 
and glorious future. Their enthusiasm, imder the banners of 
the false prophet, established an empire as great as that of the 
Caesars, and carried the shepherds of the desert, with arms in 
their hands, into the fairest and most fertile regions of the 
world. But there is no impetus now to move the stagnant 
waters, and in this city of the caliphs the loudest sound which 
salutes the ear is the Muezzen calling you to the duty of 
prayer. 



PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 



81 



lOth. But wliat are the public amusements of tlie city ? Let 
us go to the theatre, saj^s the French traveller, or get intro- 
duced into some ball or concert, in order to annihilate this 
ennui which oppresses us ! Be easy, Monsieur ! First, 
as to theatres there are none of them, the people are not 
civilised enough to admire them, nor would the solemn Turk 
look upon such representations in any other light than that 
of heathenish profanation. Nor is their absence to be re- 
gretted. The first Christians, and the first Christian councils 
condemned them, and excommunicated those who frequented 
them ; Jean Jacques Rousseau asserts that no moral nation can 
encourage them ; in the British isles it is certain that they 
increase or decrease in proportion as public vice or public 
virtue happens to prevail : the lives of the actors, taking them 
as a class, are no argument in their favour ; and connected 
with many, if not all of them, are saloons of infamy and 
seduction. "Well, let us have a dance ! Sui^ely the man 
does not live that does not dance ! Hold ! jou are again 
mistaken, for here, in the good city of Damascus, there are 
neither concerts nor balls. Has not Cicero said somewhere, 
J^emo sobrius saltat, no man dances except when he is drunk ; 
and was it not a wise and natural observation of the negro, 
who saw his master for the first time panting and perspiring 
in the heated atmosphere of the ball-room, " Massa, massa, 
why did you not make your slaves do that ?" The Turk 
does not dance, it is contrary to his nature ; when I see the 
Thames or the Kile flowing backwards, I will beKeve that 
dancing may become common in the East. The oriental moves 
slowly, and especially the Turk. He speaks little, and with 
the voice of command ; his bearing is high, noble, and com- 
manding ; he rarely moves the muscles of the face, and his 
smile reminds you of a silver plate upon a coffin ; it seems 
something misplaced, and makes off with itself as quickly as 

G 



82 



\rEILED LADIES. 



possible. He dance ! no, but the Derwisb will dance, 
out of religions madness, or the companies of dancing 
girls may be brought to amuse you in youi' languid hours. 
These gii4s are the best educated, the handsomest, and the 
most accomplished women in the East. They can read and 
write, are acquainted with poetry and song, and often sell 
themselves and theii^ accomplishments at no inconsiderable 
price. It is melancholy that throughout the East iiomorality 
is invariably associated with the education of the female sex. 
It is evident Damascus is no place for a Frenchman. 

11th. But there is another great difference between the 
general appearance of London and Damascus, viz., in the 
eastern city you see not the bright joyous coimtenance of 
woman, she is deeply veiled ; in Egypt she is enveloped from 
head to foot in a dark, and in Syria in a white sheet, which 
effectually obliterates all traces of shape, absolutely equalises 
to the eye all ranks, ages, and conditions, and suggests to the 
beholder the idea of a company of ghosts. During five years 
in the East, I never saw the face of a woman in the streets, 
nor did I ever see the face of a Mohammedan lady at all ! I 
walked into the house of a Moslem, on one occasion, without 
having signified my ajDproach, when the ladies being unveiled 
raised such shouts of terror and indignation, that I speedil}^ 
made my way to the street again. You may see the feet, but 
not the face ; one of the highest magistrates of Damascus 
^-isited me occasionally, and in the summer season he uni- 
formly put off his slippers, and sat down on his bare feet beside 
me on the divan. It is so with the ladies also. The feet 
may be seen, and much of the bosom also, in some places, but 
never the face. Conceive now how ludicrous the streets of 
London would apj)ear, if green, w^hite, black, and grey tm'bans 
moved indiscriminately instead of the present hats, and that 
all the ladies walking, or on donkeys, instead of the present 



LIFE IN THE STREETS. 



83 



varieties of showy dress, beautiful bonnets, and smiling faces, 
presented only the appearance of headless ghosts, clothed in 
white ! But I remember and respect the proverb, " When 
you enter into the country of the one-eyed, put out one of 
your own.'' 

12th. As to the General Motion and Life, the difference is 
immense between Damascus and a western city. Let us 
glance for a moment at two streets, and compare them. — 1. 
In Damascus there is more ojyenness and publicity/. The 
tradesmen of every kind work in the open bazaars ; many of 
the merchants and artisans dine in public ; viz., eat their 
bread and oil, bread and honey, or bread and grapes, in the 
street, where they work. All are smoking, without excep- 
tion, in the intervals of business ; some are engaged in read- 
ing the Koran, swinging their bodies to and fro, in the most 
earnest and violent manner. Some are sleeping calmly, with 
the long pipe in their mouth. There a butcher is killing a 
sheep, surrounded hj a circle of hungry, expectant dogs. 
Yonder is a company engaged at a game of skill. Every- 
thing is done in the open air, and nothing seems to be con- 
cealed but the ladies. 2. In the eastern city there is much 
more quiet. Their manners are sober, formal, and stately ; 
arising, partly, I believe, from the famous and universal 
dogma of obedience. There is, indeed, hardly any other 
law. The subject, the slave, the wife, the son obeys ; to hear 
is to obey. This principle of unhesitating, unquestioning 
obedience leads to quiet. There is no contradiction. There 
is nothing to talk about. There is nothing like politics. 
There is no public opinion, of course, for that is based upon 
private opinion, and determined, resolute will. This extra- 
ordinary quiet and solemnity of demeanour may arise partly, 
also, from a sense of danger. Every man has arms, and has 
the right both of wearing and using them: and no man 

g2 



84 



ARABS FOND OF SITTING. 



makes a journey, be it only to a neighbouring village, with- 
out sword and pistols. ISTow this tends to quiet, earnest, so- 
lemn manners. If a scuffle takes place, it is not a black eye, 
or a bloody face that is the result, but the certain death of 
some of the parties ; and hence they are taught the principle 
of self-restraint and moral control. 'No man carries a stick 
of any kind, small or great ; and if, being unarmed, they get 
into a row, which is rarely the case, they strike, not with the 
fist, but with the palms of the hand, as in the days of old. 
Hence, I believe, iKoXacpiaav aurov (Matt. xxvi. 67), is not 
"They beat him with rods;" but the exact 2^*la] of the 
Arabs, "They smote him with the palms of the hands." 
The smiting on the head with the icaXa/iog (Markxv. 19) was 
done in mockery and scorn, and did not arise out of any 
Jewish habit of fighting with sticks. The Calamus was a 
large reed, or cane, and is the word at present used among 
the Arabs for a pen. 3. The Arabs, and orientals in ge- 
neral, sit much more than we do. The tradesmen all sit at 
their work ; the smith, the carpenter, and the merchant, 
the butcher, the joiner, and the spice-monger, sit quietly, and 
transact their business. They sit as tailors do, cross-legged, 
but with the feet doubled in beneath them. They sit on their 
feet, and maintain that such is the most natural and easy 
position. They seem to have no pleasure in motion ; no man 
goes out to take a walk ; no man moves for the sake of exer- 
cise. They go out, as they say, to smell the air, Shim il hoiva, 
by some spreading tree or fountain of water ; and yet they 
are capable of enduring great, and long- continued labour. 
Abu Mausur travelled with us nearly forty days, riding at the 
rate of from six to eighteen hours a day, and yet, though 
never upon a horse, he was always with us at the requisite 
time and place. He performed the journey on foot, and was 
rarely far behind. Take then these things together, and you 



PRINCIPAL DIFFERENCES. 



85 



will easily perceive that, in the city of Damascus everything 
is still and calm as the unclouded sky and the balmy air. 
The hoof of the camel falls noiselessly on the unpaved street ; 
the sheepskin foot- gloves of the Damascenes make no sound ; 
and all the movements, both of men and animals, are slow 
and solemn. Here then are some of the principal differences 
between an eastern and a western city, as seen in general, 
and as they would strike the eye of the beholder, and we are, 
therefore, now prepared to enter the city, and describe what 
it is. 



86 



DESCRIPTION OF DAMASCUS. 



CHAPTER Y. 

THE CITY or DAMASCUS AS IT IS. 

The City of Damascus described exactly as it is: — I, The Walls. II. The 
general Plan of the Citj. III. The Streets ; 1. Their Dirt ; 2. The Dogs ; 
3. The Varieties and Extremes in the Streets ; 4. A strange Scene in the 
Streets ; 5. Every thing public in the Streets. IV. The Houses : 1. The 
Materials; 2. General Plan and purpose; 3. The Doors, Keys, &c. ; 4. 
The Court; 5. The Eooms ; 6. The Harem; 7. The Eoofs; 8. The 
Baths. 

Let, us then, describe tlie urdls, the general plcm of tlie city, 
the streets, the houses, and conclude with, a few reflections 
on the whole. 

I. The Walls are on the whole very wretched and miserable ; 
they are not very high, quite irregular, and give many in- 
dications of being of very different ages, and would form no 
defence against a hostile army, nor even against the Bedouin 
Arabs, if filled with the spirit of plunder ; they are much 
larger than the city, and suggest the idea of a plump alderman 
starved down into a skeleton, while his clothes remained un- 
changed. This is the case with Alexandria and Jerusalem; 
and indeed, most of the Eastern cities I have seen, and shows that 
the Oriental population is diminishing, instead of increasing. 
Lamartine describes square towers pierced with openings 
sculptured in arabesque ; their columns, like twisted reeds, 
surmoimted by battlements rounded in the shape of turbans ; 
walls cased with yellow and black marble, alternated in 
elegant taste. All this is purely imaginary, and, like many 
other of his descriptions, gives no idea of the reality. 



lamartine's poetic fancy. 



87 



Fanciful colourings are, however, the least fault of this 
fascinating writer ; he listens, believes, and retails all that he 
hears, dilated and glorified in the prism of his own poetic 
fancy. He discovers Zebdani ; gives Damascus 400,000 in- 
habitants ; makes the Armenians in it 30,000, though the 
whole Christian population is below 20,000. Can obtain an 
agreeable house for 21. a year, and makes 13/. a respectable 
and sufficient salary ; places 40,000 Christians in Bagdad ; 
surrounds Damascus with kiosks and country-houses of 
exquisite beauty ; makes the stone or mud walls either 
granite or marble, and declares that Constantinople has ever 
been, and must for ever be, the capital of the world ! For 
all which I know no better apology than Dryden's, that the 
poets succeed best in fiction. He waters the city and the 
plain with the seven streams of the blue river, of which I 
heard nothing during my long residence in Damascus. I 
have often seen the Barada, which signifies cold, from the 
refreshing coolness of its waters, and admired the foaming 
violence with which it breaks through the mountain-barriers 
that it may irrigate and lose itself in the noble plain. It is 
not divided into seven streams, but it is drawn off into 
thousands of canals of every size, and in every direction, to 
fertilise the noble gardens that surround Damascus, and form 
those charming fountains which lend such freshness and 
beauty to the streets, courts, and chambers of that city. The 
gates of the city deserve no special attention ; they are stout 
substantial gates, moving not on hinges, but on the elongated 
posts ; the same may be said of the doors and window- 
shutters. They all swing on elongated posts, extending 
about an inch into grooves cut into the lintels and thresholds. 
The city has four principal gates, but the whole interior is 
filled with them, and every street is, after gate- shutting, 
effectually separated from its fellows by shut gates. This has 



88 



QUARTERS OF THE CITY. 



its advantages, as it presents formidable impediments to the 
escape of thieves ; and in the case of an attack would, if the 
inhabitants were earnest warriors, prolong the defence almost 
indefinitely. Was it in this way that Thebes had its hundred 
gates ? 

II. The general Plan of the city. There are three quarters 
in the city, corresponding with the three religions. The 
Mohammedans are the lords of the land, the proud overbear- 
ing conquerors, who offer to the subject nations, Islam, or 
tribute, or death. Their quarter is the largest, healthiest, 
and has the best supply of water ; none of the city is clean, 
but their part of it is the cleanest, and the houses of the 
merchants and the palaces of the agas are spacious, luxurious, 
and magnificent ; 75,000 Moslems occupy this quarter of 
the city, and their streets, houses, habits, modes of life, and 
general bearing, present one of the finest examples of 
Oriental cities in the world. Come into the Christian quarter 
and mark the difference ; their streets, houses, and general 
aspect, tell of subjection, tjrranny, and hopeless bondage ; 
20,000, of whom the one-half is Greek, and the other 
Grreek- Catholic, with a few families of Armenians and 
Maronites, still bow the knee to the Crucified, and through 
the storms and persecutions of ages, have still borne aloft 
the banner of the cross. Honour to the brave ! Everlasting 
honour to the noble hearts in all lands, that stemmed the 
tide of conquest in their blood, and living or d^dng, defied 
the Moslem foe ! 0, how I honour these men ! I know how 
proud, fierce and unrelenting their murderous persecutors 
were, and still are ; I know how dog and swine and Christian, 
are s}Tionymous terms in the mouth of the tyrants ; how 
often I have heard them mutter as I led some companies 
of travellers through the city, "The infidels," spitting with 
emphasis at the same time, in order to show their contempt and 



JEWISH QUARTER. 



89 



indignation. But the tables are now turned ; tlie miglit of 
Mohammedanism is broken, and tbere is not an intelligent 
Moslem in tbe world, but knows it well. " I know it, I 
know it well," said my landlord ; " the power of the infidels is 
great, and nothing but their own quarrels keeps them out of 
Constantinople." " ^Yhen are the English coming to take this 
country said a muleteer, whom Dr. Paulding and I met 
many miles east of Damascus. " Oh, perhaps in a few years, 
if it be the will of God," we replied. " By the life of the 
Lord of the prophet, why do- they not come now ? " was his 
reply, ''for we are all oppressed." Yes, the Janizaries are 
destroyed ; the fierce fanaticism has burned itself out ; the 
crescent is waning fast ; that trembling and want of self- 
confidence which precede the downfall of nations, have 
come upon them, and a few years will bring their vile 
tyranny to an end ! Let it come ! Be it Bussia or Austria, 
be it France or England, anything that bears and respects 
the name of Christ is better than that horrible tyranny and 
hellish imposture ! May the Euphrates dry up speedily, 
and the kings of the East appear ! (Bev. xvi. 12.) — But here 
is the Jewish quarter of Damascus, the lowest, the meanest, 
the dirtiest, and the worst watered part of the city ; they 
bear the fearful curse still (Matt, xxviii. 25), and what is 
still more awful, though cursed, they cannot die ! The}^ 
are not only monuments, but li^T.ng monuments of the truth 
of the word of God, and the fearful cleaving nature of the 
curse. Here are 5,000 Jews to remind you of the most 
ancient histories, and the well guarded lineage of the great 
Deliverer. (Gen. xlix. 10 ; Is. xi. 1, 2.) They have all the 
peculiarities of their race ; they are the richest and the 
poorest of the people. The Farhis, the Hararis, and five 
or six other families, are wealthy men, and their word has 
weight in London, Liverpool and Manchester. They dress 



90 



THE STREETS. 



richly, as the Jews usually do, and their houses are princely 
palaces, but the great body of the Jews are extremely poor ; 
they are hucksters and pedlars. All the tinkers, almost, 
are J ews, and certainly all the upholsterers in the city are 
J ews ; they comb wool, stuff cushions, furnish divans, and 
not a few of them are in government offices. They hate 
the Moslems much, and the Christians still more ; the name 
]N"azarene, is an abomination, and the great stumbling-block 
is still the cross. (1 Cor. i. 23.) " Talk not to me of the 
Messiah," said one of them. " His reign is to be a time of 
peace, and idols he shall utterly abolish ; but go into the 
Christian churches, and the service is made up mostly of the 
worship of pictures, saints, angels, and the Yirgin Mary. 
Is this the reign of the Prince of peace The dwelling- 
houses in Damascus are built without much respect to order ; 
they do not stand in rows, or circles, or crescents, or squares ; 
the}" are rather like the compounds in India, and may touch 
the street with the side, the end, or a mere angle, according 
to taste or convenience ; no ^dndows, except in the higher 
stories, look towards the streets, and the entire aspect of the 
houses is sombre, dull, and prison-lilvc. The bazaars are 
quite regular, and arranged according to the different trades ; 
the tailors work in one street, the carpenters in another, the 
shoemakers in a third, &c. So the spice merchants have one 
bazaar, the cloth merchants another, and the sellers of silk 
and purple a third, and this principle extends over the whole 
city and the whole East. We must except from this law 
the butchers and bakers, who, for the convenience of the 
inhabitants are scattered indiscriminately over the city. 

III. The Streets. Touch now once more the magic ring, 
and let us enter these streets and take a peep at the varied 
and interesting scene. Let us take a walk together, and jot 
down the particulars that strike us most in this Eastern city. 



THE DIRT. ^DOGS. 



91 



1. The streets are narrow, dusty and dirty. This arises 
! from the desire of shade, and the filthy habits of the people ; 
) they are never swept ; heaps of filth and manure lie in all 
■ corners, and often by the door-posts. In summer the dust 
^ is sufibcating, and in winter, the streets, crooked and unpaved, 

' are full of pools of rain-water, so that without high pattens 
you cannot make way in them. But 

2. Your eye is attracted instantly in the streets of Damas- 
cus by the number of thin, lounging, hungry dogs that you 
meet. They have no owners, no food but the garbage of the 
streets, no kennels but the manure heaps and angles of the 
streets, no protection but the law of passive toleration. TsTo 
man owns a dog — no man injures a dog. The cats are 
fondled and caressed because they kill the serpents ; the dogs 
are tolerated because they clean the streets. The donkey, the 
mule, or the camel, falls down and dies, and where it falls 
there it lies, until in the coLirse of a few hours the dogs have 
devoured it, and the rays of the sun have rendered the effluvia 
innocuous. 1st. These dogs are universal in the East, and, 
indeed, they seem to be the companion of man over the whole 
world, though in the East their good qualities are not used 
for his advantage. Bufibn thinks they are all derived from 
the original type of the shepherd's dog. 2nd. The assertion 
of Linnaeus is not universally true with regard to the dogs in 
the East — namely, that the tail in the whole species, in all 
varieties and throughout the whole world, bends a Kttle to 
the left. 3rd. I can neither verify nor contradict the asser- 
tion of Desmarest that the tail, if black and white, necessarily 
terminates in ivJiite. This seems, indeed, to be nearly, if not 
quite, universal. I never certainly saw a dog with a black and 
white tail which had not the tip of it white. In the East, 
however, one sees no white dogs, nor any spotted ones ; they 
are mostly brown, blackish, and of an ash colour. 4th. There 



92 



PECULIARITIES OF THE DOGS. 



is no hydropliobia in tlie East, or at the least during my 
five years' residence tliere I never either saw or heard any- 
thing of it. This may arise from the providence of Grod in 
order to preserve the human race ; or perhaps that disease 
belongs only to domesticated dogs. There are many diseases 
both in man and quadrupeds arising from luxury and un- 
natural habits. A tradesman is not troubled with the gout, 
and the uncivilised dogs have no hydrophobia. 5th. These 
dogs have no hark ; they howl and make noise enough, but 
the fine, well-defined hoiv-icow is entirely wanting. This is 
the sign of the civihsed domesticated dog, and seems to 
denote the refinement of canine education. The dog, if 
allowed to run wild, as in America, loses the hark, as in a 
few generations a family in the back woods would lose the 
habits of civilised life. 6th. I need not say the Turks do 
not eat dogs, for they hold them to be as unclean and 
abominable as swine. IS'o pig dare approach the holy city of 
Damascus ; and the man who brought it might lose his life. 
A Jew once, out of the love of money, brought me a sucking 
pig imder his cloak, holding its snout all the time to pre- 
vent its squeaking ; and a ham discovered among your 
provisions would stop a whole caravan. The old Homans ate 
dogs, and considered sucking puppies a choice luxury, as the 
French at the present day do frogs, and as we do sucking 
pigs. Yirgil gives the treatment of dogs a place in his 
descriptions. (Geor. Lib. iii. 404.) 7th. The dogs in Damascus 
have established a kind of police among themselves, by which 
they know and maintain their several districts, and a strange 
dog intruding would be speedily expelled. They are always 
at the starving point ; and if the ofial and garbage of the 
street or district could support another, it would be there. 
They lie on the streets ; the man, the camel, or the donkey 
steps over them ; they rise not — they make no efibrt to clear 



DISTINCTIONS OF DRESS. 



93 



the way. No merciless wheels haye taught them to keep to 
one side. At night you cannot travel through the streets 
without a lamp, for this, among other reasons, that you 
would trample upon the dogs and get bitten. They are, how- 
ever, in general great cowards, and a firm face or the lifting 
of a stone appals them. At a certain season of the year 
they become bolder ; and on one occasion they bit Mr. 
Daniel, a fellow labourer of mine, severely. Dr. Thompson, 
a physician, was afraid of them, and in self-defence carried 
arms ; but it so happened that in the explosion he missed the 
dog and shot a Moslem in the leg, which brought him and 
the English in general into a good deal of danger. 

3. The eye is attracted by the varieties and extremes that 
fill these crowded streets. 1st. Look along that moving 
multitude and mark the various costumes. The green turbans 
are the descendants of the prophet ; the white are the true 
believers ; the grey denote the accursed T^azarenes ; the hlach 
point out the Abrahamic race — "tribes of the weary breast 
and wandering foot." These reddish flat fez caps, with 
dangling blue silk tassel, are the soldiers of the Sultan ; the 
spiral, pyramidal caps here and there appearing in the crowd 
are Persians, and recall the memories of Cyrus and his 
immortal bands ; and those dun handkerchiefs wrapped round 
the head and fastened with a cloth in the form of a rope, 
are the Bedowin Arabs, the children of the desert. All 
these, and others which cannot be mentioned particularly, 
meet and mingle in this motley scene. 2nd. Then behold 
the various animals. The horse in all his varieties is there ; 
the mule, donkey, dromedary, and camel are there ; the cow, 
bufialo, sheep, and goats crowd around these fountains in the 
streets, and, without attacking one another, only seek the 
refreshment of the cooKng stream. 3rd. But who comes 
here ? It is the train of a pasha ; he is borne by an Arab 



94 



STRANGE SCENES. 



steed ; armed janizaries clear the way for liini ; his pipe- 
bearer and other domestics follow in the rear ; he himself is 
clothed with the utmost splendour, and everything about his 
horse and himself indicates wealth and magnificence. But 
see how here also extremes are meeting, for yonder is a 
fakeer in a state of nudity. He calls himself a saint, goes 
naked, sleeps under a tree or in the streets, and takes freely 
what he requires. All varieties and extremes are seen in 
these streets. But 

4. Let me describe two strange scenes. The first is reli- 
gious, and the second political. See ! a venerable old sheikh 
comes, surrounded by swarming multitudes. He is riding on 
a quiet horse ; his manner is firm ; his beard white and 
flomng ; his hands stretched out before him ; his head moving 
to and fro wildly ; his tongue uttering rapidly, " Grod is one, 
and we are his children." " Grod is one, and we are his chil- 
dren." Ask one of the people what this means, and he 
replies, as he did to me, " This is for the forgiveness of sins." 
It is the coimterpart of the Pope's blessing the people from 
St. Peter's. But here comes another train, and a quite 
difierent scene. The man is riding upon a donkey, with his 
head to the tail, and the surging multitudes are looking on 
in astonishment and horror. This is the punishment of 
perjury, and the proud, haughty Turk dreads it more than 
the edge of the Damascus blade. In a fortnight afterwards 
he was in his grave. His heart was broken. The courts of 
justice in the East are much simpler than with us, and 
punishment immediately follows the conviction of crime. 
The judge, the mufti, the prisoner, and the executioner, are 
all in court together ; and the donhey, the scourge, or the 
sword are only waiting for the sentence. Is it a minor 
ofience ? He is laid down on the spot and receives the 
awarded stripes before the people. Is the crime capital? 



WORKING IN THE OPEN AIR. 



95 



Then the head falls, and tlie matter is ended. Simple com- 
mon sense and natural justice seem to be the principal guides 
in their decisions. There are no attorneys and eloquent 
advocates to perplex and confuse the impressions of the 
judge ; and no juries retire to weigh and consider evidence. 
The great object is to prevent crime, and this can be most 
effectually accomplished, not by exactly adjusting punish- 
ments to crimes, but by bringing the law with the force of 
a thunderbolt and the rapidity of lightning upon the 
transgressor. 

5. But see ! everything is open in these streets. That is 
true, and seems to be in contradiction with their habits in 
other respects. The shops or bazaars are in the open air, and 
the merchants are all sitting in the public streets. Here is 
the street of the carpenters, where hundreds are busy with 
the plane and the axe ; yonder the shoemakers stick to their 
last (ne siitor ultra crepidmn) in the midst of myriads of red 
and yellow shoes, slippers, and soft sheepskin boots, very like 
our stockings. A hundred hammers strike the anvil in 
another direction ; and to your left the honourable company 
of tailors ply their nimble weapons, and exhibit all their 
varieties of taste and elegance. Come along ! You will get 
past ; it is only a butcher killing a sheep, and the hungry 
dogs stand in a circle waiting for their share of the spoil. 
Here are the long bazaars of sweetmeats and spiceries for 
which, above all other cities, Damascus is celebrated ; and 
away towards the right are the shops of the silk merchants, 
full of the richest fabrics of the East — girdles, turbans, and 
flowing robes of costliest materials, with all varieties of 

Indian mats and Persian carpets which it makes the heart 
bleed to tread on." These beautiful fabrics are not made 
here ; and the splendid silk damask interwoven with gold is 
not often met with either in the houses or the bazaars, and 



96 



DAMASCENE INDUSTRY. 



the principal manufactures are silk and cotton stuff, woven 
skilfully in various patterns of many colours and endless 
varieties. The Damascenes are skilful in making silver cups 
of filagree work, and neat boxes, cabinets, and other articles 
of furniture, inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl. They 
refine their own salt, and have several glass manufactories ; 
but the ancient magnificent stained glass windows, seen still 
in old houses, are rarely renewed or imitated ; and the art of 
making the famous Damascus blades is entirely lost. Swords 
and gun-barrels of old Persian iron are sometimes to be met 
with, and are eagerly bought up and highly prized. But 
sweet spiceries and compounds of all varieties of eatable, are 
the special work and delight of the Moslems of Damascus ; 
and their vanity delights in the proverb found in every 
mouth, " that in three things — food, air, and water — Damas- 
cus surpasses all the rest of the world." But here let us 
have a nargilee, a plate of ice, and a beverage of sherbet. 
This last is a favourite drink, and very agreeable. If you 
wish a receipt for making it, take cold iced water, add the 
juice of grapes, or lemons, or pomegranates, and present it to 
your guests with a lump of sugar swimming in each cup. 
Look now along these covered bazaars and tell me what they 
are like. They are not like our shops ; they are not like our 
houses. They are small, raised four or five feet from the 
ground, and. surrounded with shelves. They are like a row 
of salt-boxes, whose lids are lifted up during the day and 
locked down at night. The entire apartment is filled with 
wares round about, with the exception of the hole, a little 
larger than himself, in which the merchant sits like a tailor, 
and reaches round him without rising for whatever he wants. 
Now then, if you are tired with the streets and these 
famous bazaars, let us make a few visits to the houses of 
Damascus. 



HOUSES— MATERIALS AND PLAN. 



97 



TV. The Houses described. In this examination we may 
observe — 

1st. The Materials of which they are built. These are clay 
and stone and wood. Look towards the outskirts of the city, 
and in all the poorer streets and lanes, and you may easily 
observe that these dun walls are altogether of clay. Here 
you find the basis of Job's fine description of our frail mor- 
tality — ''Houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, 
which are crushed before the moth" (Job iv. 19). Compare 
the earthen vessel of 2 Cor. iv. 7, and the earthly house, v. 1. 
Here you understand how the adulterers could dig through 
the houses in the dark (Job xxiv. 16), and how the enemies 
of Grod and his people are compared to a " bowing loall and a 
tottering fenoe,^^ Psalm Ixii. 3; see also Isaiah xxx. 13. These 
clay houses, of which you see a specimen in Damascus, are 
very common in Egjrpt and all the flat comitries of the East, 
where clay is abundant and stones are scarce. In Damascus 
there are stones in abundance, but the old habit still, to a 
great extent, continues, of building the houses with mud. 
Such houses are cheaper, and they are a better defence against 
both heat and cold than those built of stone. Many of the 
Damascus houses are commenced with stone and finished with 
clay, and in some of the higher ones the rooms of the upper 
story are formed by planting stakes in the mud walls, and 
uniting them after the manner of our lath and plaster. In 
such instances you have stone at the bottom, mud in the 
middle, and wood at the top. The greater number of Da- 
masens houses, however, are built entirely of stone. 

Snd. The general Plan and Purpose of the fine houses in the 
East seems to be the same as it was a thousand years ago ; 
little attention is paid to the outside, while the inside is filled 
with wealth and splendour. The courts in the centre of the 
building are rich and spacious, ornamented with vines, lemon 

H 



98 



DOORS, LOGICS, KEYS. 



trees, and weeping willows ; while the cloistered apartments 
all round about are made too luxurious and somniferous by 
fountains of water, refreshing shade, and the sweet singing 
of birds. Large rooms, high ceilings, little furniture, flowing 
streams, and marble fountains, are the natural and necessary 
results of the climate; and the secret doors, the iron- grated 
windows, the private baths, the secluded apartments of the 
wives and domestics, arise out of the religion and habits of 
the people. The principles upon which the house is built are 
ease and retirement. The palaces are prisons, the wives are 
like slaves, and their masters are tyrants. 

3rd. TJie Doors. In the open comitry, in the ^dllages, and 
the parts exposed to the depredations of the wandering Arabs, 
the doors are in general very low and narrow ; and the words 
of the royal sage are verified to the present hour — " He that 
exalteth his gate seeketh destruction" (Pro v. x^oi. 19). In 
Damascus, Cairo, and the large cities, where a multitude of 
inhabitants, walls, and a stable government have given the 
sense of security, the doors are more respectable, but they 
are little ornamented, and bear no relation to the splendours 
within. They move, not upon hinges, but elongated posts, 
entering into grooves in the thresholds and lintels ; they 
have generally an iron knocker, which is mostly a thick ring, 
and are opened by slaves. They are generally situated at 
some angle or outer alley, so that the door being opened you 
have not a full view of the court ; and the staircase is often 
placed in the same quarter, so that you can open the door and 
ascend to the upper apartments without entering into the 
court. The door is made fast by a wooden lock, in which five, 
six, or more pins fall into corresponding holes in a sliding 
bolt as soon as it is pushed into the staple of the door-post ; 
the key, var^dng in length from six inches to two feet and a 
half, is furnished with, corresponding timber or iron pins, 



THE KEY A SYMBOL. 



99 



wliicli being introduced into the sliding bolt force up tbe pins 
wbich fastened it and draw it back. This key is used sym- 
bolically, and is explained in the sacred Scriptures and other 
ancient writings. Thus the key of David's house was to be laid 
upon the shoulder of Eliakim (Isaiah xxii. 22), and denoted 
full power in the administration of the royal household. 
Compare Matt. xvi. 19, Rev. iii. 7 , Luke xi. 52, Rev. i. 18, 
Luke xxiv. 32. The lords of the bedchamber in England 
carry a key. The Papists represent the popes with a mitre on 
the head and keys in the hand ; the first a symbol of the 
cloven tongues of pentecost, the second of their power over 
the gates of the Popish paradise. The Grreeks represent 
Pluto and Proserpine with keys in their hands, Kapirovg 

avairsfjLTreiv airo yairjg — to bring forth fruits from the earth ; 
and in the Orphic Hymn we have the same symbol : — 

TLXovrojp, og Kare'^eig yairjg KXtjidag airacrrjg, 
UXovTodoTio yeverjv jSpOTerjp KapTzoig £viavr(i)V. 

" Pluto, who hast the heijs of all the earth, 
Enriching mortals with the yearly fruits." 

Soliman, the son of Abd-il-Malek, who released prisoners, 
dried up the tears of widows, and blessed his subjects with a 
reign of justice and mercy, was called by the Arabians, 
" Mefiah Alkheir,^^ the key of goodness ; Callithoe is called 
by the Greeks, KXzi^ovyog OXv/uLiria^og jBaaiXsirjg, the key- 
bearer of the Oljrmpian queen; and the priestess of Ceres, 
Kanofxa^iav zyj. KXai^a, had a key on her shoulders. The 
great claim of Mohammed after the Koreish had lost or sold 
the key of the Caaba was, that he had the key of paradise ; 
and his followers in the West retained the symbol, as is seen 
to this day in the sculptured gate of the Alhambra in Spain, 
and the title under which the Grreeks anathematized him was 

H 2 



JOO 



THE COURT AND APARTMENTS. 



K\ei^ov")(^og Tov Uapa^eKTov, the pretended key-bearer of the 
kingdom of keayen. Tkese doors, locks, and keys, therefore, 
are interesting to the traveller as throwing light upon the 
customs of nations and the monuments of antiquity. 

4th. The Court. We now enter, and find ourselves in the 
centre of a spacious court, surrounded by large and lofty 
chambers which look into it. In the centre is a marble 
fountain, with from six to eight jets playing, and the basin 
of water, generally from two to three feet high, is usually 
ornamented with rows of flower-pots ; if the court be large 
there are other smaller fountains, and here and there vines, 
willows, and orange trees rise out of the marble pavement 
and furnish a delightful and refreshing shade ; these trees are 
inhabited by sparrows, doves, and blackbirds ; while grapes, 
oranges, and lemons, in rich luxuriance, tempt the appetite 
and the eye. At marriages, festivals, and high solemnities, the 
court, the trees, and every prominent object are hung round 
with lamps, and, with the alternate layers of white and black 
stones, of which the walls are built, form a scene of truly 
Oriental magnificence. The door is shut ; no mortal eye 
from above or from below can enter that court, and the 
assembled friends enjoy the most perfect seclusion. If they 
be very near relatives, the harem opens its mysterious 
portals, and the unveiled beauties from Constantinople or 
Circassia, the rulers of the ascendant for their brief horn-, 
lend gaiet}^ and attraction to the scene. Large houses have 
three, four, or five courts, which may be of every shape and 
size, according to the nature of the groimd, or the taste of 
the owner, but generally they are rectangles, and the outer 
or surrounding courts are subsidiary, both in size and splen- 
dour, to a great central one. 

5th. But come now into tJie Rooms of our Damascus house, 
and let us survey the arrangements of the Moslem habitations. 



THE APARTMENTS AND FITTINGS. 



101 



The floor is of two levels : the first or lowest, into wliicli you 
enter, contains a fountain with several spouts of water, is paved 
with marble, has racks for pipes, recesses in the walls for nar~ 
gelies, cups, &c., and other conveniences for the household. 
Here the slaves wait the will of their masters, and here you put 
off the sKppers before you ascend to the second level, where 
the mats are spread and the family sitting. Over this fountain 
is suspended from the highest part of the ceiling a chandelier, 
with a great many little glass lamps, whose various lights, 
mingling with the waters and reflected from them, produce a 
very beautiful effect. The second level is twelve or eighteen 
inches higher than the first, and is the place appropriated to 
the family ; it is often separated from the lower part by a 
little railing of wood or stone. Mats are spread upon the 
earthen floor, and round the walls mattresses, three feet or 
three feet and a half broad, are spread out for the accommo- 
dation of the family, upon the mats or upon low wooden 
frames four or six inches in height. This is customary in 
Damascus, and adds not a little to the cleanness and comfort 
of the rooms. Thus, then, you have round the rooms these 
low wooden frames, upon which the mattresses are spread, 
and in the angle at the walls a row of pillows, stuffed with 
cotton wool, covered with furniture cotton- cloth from English 
looms, and sometimes faced with silk damask and velvet. 
Here you rest in the heat of the day, with your feet drawn up 
underneath you and your body reclining against the cushions, 
and here too you sleep with a coverlet thrown over you, for 
separate bed-rooms are imknown. This is your grand recep- 
tion room ; the place of honour is the corner ; the honoured 
guest sits at the right hand ; the position is sitting upon the 
feet ; the attendants are black slaves ; the hospitalities are 
pipes, coffee, sherbet, fruits, sweetmeats, &c., when the 
dinner hour is not arrived. In Jewish and Christian families 



102 



SCANTINESS OF FURNITURE. 



these are presented by the mistress of the house (John xii. 2), 
the sweets are all taken by the same spoon, and the lady of the 
house takes the first sop. The slave, in presenting anything, 
lays his hand upon his heart, and in reply to your commands 
says, " Upon my head and upon my eye,'* which means — to 
hear is to obey; if I fail, let me lose the head and the eye. 
But you have spoken of mats on the floor, and divans round 
the walls. What is the furniture of our room ? There is 
none ; chairs and tables are wanting ; pianos, organs, and 
ottomans are wanting, and all those elegant littles which, under 
the tasteful arrangement of the European lady, set off a room 
so much. The whole centre of the room is empty ; the air 
has free liberty to circidate, and the imagination is gratified 
by lofty ceilings and a large vacant space. There are no fires 
nor fire-places in these rooms ; indeed, the chimney is a new in- 
vention. The Greeks and Romans had none of them ; no trace 
of them is discoverable in Herculaneimi and Pompeii ; ancient 
painting and sculpture are silent on this point, nor has any one 
passage been discovered in the literature of antiquity which 
refers to, or expresses the idea of a chimney. In the winter 
season you heat these Damascus rooms with the mongol, viz. : 
a chafing-dish filled with red-hot charcoal placed before you 
on the floor. The windows have shutters, are generally without 
glass, and always without curtains and blinds. Clocks are 
not used in the houses, as the public crier announces the hour 
from the mosque, yet most people wear Grecian or Constanti- 
nople watches. The walls have neither paintings nor pictures, 
as the Moslems avoid the very appearance of idolatry ; at the 
height of twenty feet or so, there is a framework of wood 
round the entire room, which seems to be a mere custom, and 
without any use ; it is about a foot and a half broad, and the 
wealthy Mohammedans often place upon it a row of very 
costly large old China bowls. There are no banks for money, 



ORNAMENTAL WORK IN ROOMS. 



103 



silver bars are easily stolen, and hence not a little of the extra 
wealth is treasured up in mercliants' houses in the shape of 
old China. Time does not injure it, and there is always a 
ready price for it in the market. Beneath this framework 
the room is ornamented with beautiful broad pannels of finely 
carved wood, upon which sentences from the Koran, or lines 
from the ancients poets, are written in large raised letters of 
gold, with great ingenuity and exquisite taste. Indeed, in 
penmanship, the Orientals far surpass us ; sometimes the 
entire room, from the framework down, is wainscotted with 
cedar- wood, and cut, panneled, and carved with immense 
labour and in every conceivable form. This adds more to the 
beauty than the comfort of the rooms, inasmuch as the 
woodwork instantly becomes the habitation or camp of innu- 
merable squadrons of bugs, who attack you without mercy, and 
which no human ingenuity has yet been able to banish. The 
doors of these rooms all open into the court, and never into 
one another ; the windows do the same, and are strongly 
grated with iron bars, a significant hint to troublesome ladies 
and disobedient slaves ! The ceilings are lofty and ornate ; 
beautiful carving, interspersed with numerous Kttle looking- 
glasses, relieves and gratifies the eye, and very often the circu- 
lar centre-piece is composed of massive embossment, in which 
a gigantic serpent displjang its^ beautifid folds and glancing 
eyes seems ready to spring upon you. Let the sun now shed 
his golden beams through the upper windows, which are of 
beautiful stained glass ; let the golden letters in pannels upon 
the walls appear in their beauty ; let hundreds of little look- 
ing-glasses above and around you reflect and multiply every 
object and movement ; place a number of richly clothed Turks 
with long beards and flowing robes upon the divan amidst soft 
mattresses and velvet cushions, with long pipes in their mouths ; 
add to all this the unceasing murmur of falling waters, and 



104 



THE HAREM. 



you have a scene really beautiful and truly Oriental. TMs;, 
however, is a fine Damascus room, and you are not to suppose 
that all the others are like it save in the general outlines ; on 
the contrary, most of the houses and rooms, courts and 
passages, are mean and filthy in the last degree, and 
give you a very low idea of the comfort and civilisation 
of the land. 

6th. The Sarem. This word denotes both the apart- 
ments of the ladies and the ladies themselves. ; these rooms 
are always the finest in the building, they form the innermost 
recess, the sanctum sanctorum of Mohammedan habitations, 
and in the houses of agas, pashas, and wealthy merchants, are 
ornamented with boundless magnificence. 1st. The Moslem 
may legally have four wives, and as many slaves, men and 
women, as his right hand can possess — that is, as many as he 
has wealth to purchase or courage to captivate in the day of 
battle. He is bound to act justly towards his wives ; he may 
love one of them supremely, but he must treat the rest 
respectfully, and he is not to keep any of them in suspense, as 
if they were neither wives, widows, nor virgins — ^neither under 
the protection of a husband, nor divorced, and so free to 
marry again (Sale's Koran, 77). In the case of adultery he 
must produce four witnesses for the fact, and if it be proved, 
he can imprison the transgressors in separate apartments till 
they die (Koran, 62) ; he may not have more than four wives 
at a time (Koran, 60) ; he may divorce a wife twice and take 
her back again, but being divorced a third time he cannot 
take her back again till she shall have been married to 
another man and divorced, in which case he may take her 
back (Koran, 27) ; he may divorce a wife with whom the 
marriage has not been consummated, merely by giving her an 
honourable present, and sending her away (Koran, 349) ; 
otherwise they miLst be put away at the appointed terms 



TUHKISH MARRIED LIFE. 



105 



(Koran, 451) ; generally speaking divorce is easy, and he is 
not bound to give reasons, nor does it bring upon the wile 
any great disgrace, as she is speedily married again. Indeed, 
marriage seems to be little more than a great experiment by 
which, finally, after many trials, the parties that fit each other 
may come together. 2nd. The Moslem has not the same ideas 
that we have, as to the qualifications requisite for a wife ; the 
three p's, piety, parentage, and property, are not indispensable ; 
mental qualities and accomplishments are all forgotten in the 
elegance of the form, or the beauty of the face. The beautiful 
slsive from Georgia or Circassia as is acceptable as the daughter 
of a prince, and will often rule the Harem, the slaves, and 
the whole house, with her capricious and despotic hand. The 
immarried slave becomes free as soon as she becomes a mother, 
and may use her liberty if she pleases. 3rd. You are not to 
suppose that most, or even many, of the Moslems, have four 
wives, they are prevented by poverty, by affection, and by the 
great law of nature, which created the human race male and 
female at the beginning, and keeps the mmibers of males and 
females nearly equal in all ages. In Damascus very many 
have but one wife, and though divorce may, and does multiply 
the facilities for having a variety of wives, yet I am led to 
think that though two wives are frequent, three or fom^ are 
very rare, and that perhaps the majority are contented with 
one at a time. 4th. The last married wife is generally the 
favourite for the time being, and the others must submit to 
her control. These different wives, if the husband can at all 
afford it, are kept in different houses, or even in different cities. 
^^Tien this is not possible, the four wives and families dwelling 
in the same habitation make it not unfrequently a scene of 
noise and boisterous confusion ; the children fight, the mothers 
interfere, accusing and defending; the eunuchs and slaves 
take part in the tumult, and very often the master of the 



106 



THE ROOFS. 



ceremonies himself, not able to find out the truth of the matter, 
retires proudly and slowh^ to the Leewan, claps his hands for 
a pipe, sa}^g, Let them fight it out, it is useless to inter- 
fere, God has created from a crooked rib/' We call the wife 
a rih, they call her a crooked rib, and we see in this trifle one of 
the great difierences between the East and the West, as well 
as between Christianity and the doctrines of Islam. With, us 
woman is a companion, with them she is a slaye. 

7th. The JRoofs. Come back now to the door, and observe 
when you open it a number of benches or seats in the porch, 
on which servants, eunuchs, slaves, &c., lounge, smoking and 
drinking cofiee. From this porch, generally speaking, the stair- 
case rises, which is always of stone, and leads to tbe upper stories, 
and the terrace or roof of the house. Ascend ; here we are 
now on the housetop, and can enjoy the cooling air and the 
distant prospect. These roofs are made of clay, trodden down 
and hardened by the sun. This is the ordinary roof in 
Damascus, and requires to be renewed every year, as the rains 
of winter wash, a great part of it away ; the rich fine houses 
have hadjeria roofs, which are very hard, and even for centuries 
require little or no repair. They are formed of sand, lime, 
jefseen, a substance not unlike the plaster of Paris, and water, 
mixed in certain proportions together, and then pounded firmly 
upon the fiat roof. This remarkable compound hardens into 
a substance almost as firm and durable as the limestone rock ; 
it is of a white greyish colour ; the water runs ofi" from it 
like slates, and if the cracks be filled up, occasioned b}^ the heat 
of the sun or the yielding of the timbers of the roof, you will 
have no repairs to make for many generations. It is the 
cheapest terrace in the end, and infinitely cleaner tban those 
formed of mud. This method of roofing houses is often referred 
to in the Sacred Scriptures, and illustrates many otherwise 
obscure passages. The Jew was commanded to make a battle- 



THE HOUSETOP. 



107 



ment for tlie roof of his house, that he might not bring blood 
upon his house (Deut. xxii. 8) ; as you stand here upon the 
terrace, the outer wall rises seven or ten feet higher than the 
floor on which you stand ; towards the court on the other side 
a firm balustrade or timber railing prevents you from falling 
into the court. These are the battlements of the house ; if 
now you shut the door at the head of the stairs, you have a 
fine open lofty space and perfectly secure, where the children 
can play, and the family enjoy the fresh air. Here Rahab hid 
the spies under stalks of flax (Jos. ii. 6) ; here the thousands 
assembled to witness the blind hero of Israel in the temple of 
Dagon ( Jud. xvi. 27) ; here David was walking when he saw 
Bathsheba, and was tempted into the crimes of adultery and 
murder ; from the roof David's watchman discerned the swift- 
footed Ahimaaz, who brought the news of the victory in the 
wood of Ephraim (2 Sam. xviii. 2-i) ; the Jews, emancipated 
from Babylon, held the feast of tabernacles with great glad- 
ness, and made for themselves booths, every one upon the roof of 
his house (J^ehem. viii. 16); upon the housetop Samuel com- 
muned with Saul concerning the destiny of the kingdom, and 
the will of the Lord (1 Sam. ix. 26) ; Peter was prajT^ng upon 
the housetop (Acts x. 9) when he beheld the glorious vision 
which unfolded the mystery of Divine love, that the Gentiles 
should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body and partakers of 
his promise in Christ by the gospel (Eph. iii. 6) ; here he first 
found the use of his keys (Mat. xvi. 19), in opening the king- 
dom of heaven to all believers. Many Arabs sleep upon the 
housetops, and in the warm season find it cool and refreshing ; in 
the rainy season, however, and in high winds, it reminds you 
of Solomon's preference : " It is better to dwell in a corner of 
the housetop than with a brawling- woman in a wide house," 
(Prov. xxi. 9), and " A continual dropping in a very rainy 
day and a contentious woman are aKke," (Prov. xxvii. 15, and 



108 



AN EASTERN BATH. 



xix. 13). It was a broad flat roof lil^e tliis wMcli the ardent 
and anxious mulitude in Capernaum broke np, to let down the 
paralytic into the presence of the healer, (Mark ii. 3, 4). In 
times of fire, earthquakes, and public danger in general, as 
well as on occasions of family or friendly festivities, the house- 
tops are the common resort of the people of the East, and this 
fact explains the following references of Holy Scripture: 
Is. XV. 3, xxii. 1 ; Jer. xlviii. 38 ; Zep. i. 5 ; Mat. x. 27 ; 
Lidie xii. 3. 

8th. Baths. — Many of the fine private houses in Damascus 
have baths attached to them. The Orientals are fond of the 
hot bath, and we shall now describe the system of bathing, 
as it exists in Damascus. I have seen many private bath- 
rooms — of course I have never been in them during the time 
of bathing, and therefore cannot describe the actual mode of 
operation in them ; but I have every reason to believe that 
the style and method are quite the same as in the public baths. 
Come, then, and as the day is hot, and our bodies weary, let 
us enjoy the luxury of an JE astern Bath. The Muezzin has 
announced the hour of twelve, the ladies are retiring, and in 
a few moments the baths wiU be free for the men. The 
baths are at all prices, and in all quarters of the city. We 
shall pay our half crown, and enjoy a good one. Open that 
door, or knock if it be barred ; the door-keeper presents you 
with a pair of j^attens, on which you waEi, with his help, to 
the high divans that surround the room. The room is wet ; 
a large, high fountain of water flows copiously in the centre ; 
mattresses are spread in aU directions upon the surrounding 
divans. Pipes, nargilies, cofiee-cups, small trays, cofiee-pots, 
stand round the room in multitudinous array. You are now 
stripped ; your clothes, watch, money, and all that you have, 
given into the care of the keeper, who is responsible for their 
safe forthcoming. A large towel is girded round the waist, 



MODE or BATHING. 



109 



and anotlier thrown oyqt the shoulders. Pattens are again 
presented, and by tlie help of the guide you make your way 
out of the cold room, where you undressed, into a warm one, 
where there is no water ; here the temperature is very high. 
In a few moments the perspiration flows from every pore, 
the lungs are oppressed, and you gasp for breath, like an 
animal under the cruel experiments of an air-pump. Pass 
on, and now Yv'e are in the really hot rooms, where the hot 
water flows ; the lungs have become a little accustomed to 
the temperature, and you may take yom- place beside a hot 
fountain, and begin operations as soon as you please. A brass 
basin lies beside the fountain, and when you have oj)erated 
upon yourself according to your pleasure, the bath-man 
comes, and in a large bucket makes a magnificent lather of 
soap and water (Damascus soap is good), which he poiu-s upon 
your head ; then beginning at the head and neck with the 
rough, but most pleasant, flesh brush, he rubs you gently all 
over the body, and at every rub removes the httle roll of 
impurity which the brush has gathered from your body. 
You thought you were clean, but the Turkish bath shows you 
the contrary, as every scrape brings a roll of dirt as thick as 
a little earthworm from your body. Meanwhile the soap, 
water, and heat are working their efiects, and blood, breath, 
and life begin to circulate more freeh^ You are now washed ; 
a doubled-up towel is laid under your head, and you may lie 
upon the warm pavement as long as you like, laving water 
or ha\dng it laved upon your body ; or you may call for pipes 
and cofiee. And now you are ready for the manipulation. 
You are taken to a dry room, generally the outer cold room 
which you left, and rolled up in towels, and laid clown upon 
the mattress, with a pillow under your head ; after ten mi- 
nutes, the towels are changed. You recline again, and again 
have the towels changed, until you are quite dry. You are 



110 



LUXURY or BATHING. 



not rubbed with towels, tbe towels are merely cbanged. I 
should have mentioned, that before you left the bath-room, 
if you did not forbid it, every particle of hair is shaven off 
from your whole body, with the exception of a small tuft 
upon the crown of the head. J^ow, however, you are dry, 
warm, and comfortable, among towels and cushions, and 
while you enjoy your nargilie, the manipulator begins at the 
toes, and presses, pinches, and manipulates with amazing 
vigour every inch of your body ; pulls your joints till they 
crack ; twists your head from right to left and from left to 
right, till you begin to fear he may wrench it off altogether. 
He now assists you to dress ; presents you a comb and look- 
ing-glass (hair brushes are not used), on which last, when 
you have done, you lay your piastres, and, with mutual 
salaams, bid adieu to the bath. You feel now like a new 
man, you are so buoyant, so refreshed, and the whole body so 
attuned and at ease. The Orientals are devoted to the baths ; 
so were the old Romans, as we read both in history and in 
the ruins of Rome. So are the present Russians, who enjoy 
their vapour baths, drinking English ale, and then plunge 
into cold water, as the finishing of the business. The rich 
spend a good deal of their time in the baths of Damascus, 
and they bathe very often ; while the ladies use them for 
social intercourse — smoking, drinking coffee, and whiHng 
away their idle hours. 



THE JEWISH MISSION IN DAMASCUS. 



Ill 



CHAPTER YI. 

THE JEWISH MISSION IN DAMASCUS. 

A. The Origin of the Mission: I. The Claims of the Jews; II. The Mission 
proposed. B. Missionary Difficulties : I. The Language ; II. The Habits 
of the People ; III. The Climate ; IV. Con^upt Christianity ; V. Civil 
Government ; VI. Family Difficulties ; VII. Jewish Fanaticism ; VIII. 
The Missionary is Alone ; IX. Much is expected from a Missionary ; 
X. What Converts have you made ? C. Missionary Labours : What are 
they? I. Acquiring the Language; II. Preaching the Word; III. The 
Distribution of Books ; IV. Intercourse with the Jews ; V. The Use of 
the Press; VI. Schools. D. Missionary Success: I. Among the Jews; 
1. Great Movement among the Jews ; 2. Noble Specimens of converted 
Jews; II. Among the Heathen; 1. The Noble Nature of the Enterprise ; 
3. Have the Missionaries found Access to the People? 3. Special Exam- 
ples given ; 4. The American Board of Missions ; 5. Subsidiary Objects. 

A. The Origin of the Mission. I. DTiring the last fifty years 
the feelings of nations and churches with regard to many 
political and ecclesiastical principles have become gradually 
very much changed. Great national events have contributed 
mainly to this change ; the overthrow of monarchical govern- 
ment by the Long Parliament of England ; the corruption of 
morality by the Jesuits ; the American war of independence ; 
the concussion of all and the overthrow of many kingdoms 
in the wars of the French revolution ; the universal sea- 
empire of Great Britain ; the spread of mercantile and scien- 
tific principles, and the application of steam power to useful 
purposes, have contributed mainly to mitigate the fierceness 
of political and religious fanaticism, and introduce the milder 



112 



ORIGIN OF THE JEWISH MISSION. 



principles of persuasion and forbearance. Tlie Jews as well 
as others have felt the benefit of this change ; they are no 
longer banished, plundered, or hunted to death like wild 
beasts ; and if not admitted into the goyernments and par- 
liaments of Europe, the safety of their persons and the rights 
of their properties are secured to them. The Jews felt and 
availed themselves of the favourable sentiments of the nations 
and threw themselves ever^^here, and especially on the Con- 
tinent, into the swelling current of liberalism and popular 
rights ; ages were forgotten in the enthusiasm of the mo- 
ment ; their stunted formalism relaxed at every point, and 
even the faith of Abraham and the most cherished hopes of 
his posterity yielded to the assimilating or destructive pro- 
cess. One great body of the Jews are unbelievers ; for the 
reformed Jews the Hebrew is no longer the sacred language ; 
the bible no longer inspiration ; Moses, the patriot and philo- 
sopher, is no longer the prophet of God ; their land of promise 
is not Palestine, but their birth.- place ; and the Messiah, the 
hope of the nation, is their political deliverance and incor- 
poration into the citizenship of the nations. Such is the 
political change both in the feelings of the Jews themselves 
and the European nations which has taken place during the 
last half century. 

11. But while such political events were transpiring, what 
was the Christian church thinking and doing with regard to 
the Jews ? The English and Grerman nations had long been 
convinced that Popery was false and the Pope himself the 
antichrist of the 'New Testament. And now they began 
much about the same time to come to the conclusion that the 
Pope's method of converting the Jews by terror, confiscation 
of property, or the fear of death, could not be the right one. 
In England especially, the contempt and persecution of ages 
began gradually to jdeld to feelings of respect and commise- 



OHIGIN OF JEWISH MISSIONS. 113 

ration. Are they not tlie ancient people of God, tlie living 
monuments of the blessing and tlie curse ? Are they not 
still the prophetic nation ? Have we not received from them 
the oracles of God, the prophecies, the promises, and the 
Divine Redeemer himself ? These thoughts wrought in the 
hearts of the children of God, and the result was the deep 
conviction, " We have failed ia our duty towards the Jewish 
nation ; we must love them and carry to them the Gospel of 
peace and love."" Hence arose Jewish missions ; the Church 
of England entered heartily into the arduous labour, and the 
East, the continent of Europe, and England itself, bear testi- 
mony to her noble and persevering efforts. The venerable 
Bobert Rutherford took up the subject in the General Assem- 
bly of the Scottish church ; a mission of inquiry was ap- 
pointed, and the result was the establishment of Jewish 
missions. In Ireland, too, the study of prophecy and the 
example of neighbouring churches had ripened in the heart 
of the Presbyterian people a feeling of love to the ancient 
people of God, and the General Assembly resolved unani- 
mously to institute a mission for the Jews, and make Pales- 
tine the field of its labours. The choice of the directors of 
the missions fell upon me. I was full of hope, an ardent 
student of prophecy, and I gladly left the dear people of 
Dundonald, whom I loved, and who loved me dearly, to 
minister at the command of the church among the Oriental 
J ews. Many of my brethren in the Presbytery of Belfast 
accompanied me to the ship ; we prayed and wept together, 
and ia mutual and full-hearted affection we parted from one 
another. It was a solemn moment, and I felt the weight af 
the responsibility under which I was placed. We took the 
G.eat Liverpool, at Southampton, and after touching at Gib- 
raltar and Malta on the way, landed at Alexandiia, December 
20th, 1842 ; we rested a day or two in Egypt, and on Christ- 

I 



114 



MISSIONARY DIFFICULTIES. 



mas day landed in the beautiful bay of Beyrout. Tliere, 
after a few months, the Rey. Dr. Wilson, from Bombay, Mis- 
sionary of the Free Church of Scotland, joined me, and we 
made our journey through the land together, in order to fix 
upon the most proper station as the centre of missionary 
operations. We selected Damascus, and we did so chiefly 
out of deference to our Episcopalian brethren. Our hearts 
inclined towards Jerusalem; it was the centre and earthly 
home of our holy religion. Calvary, Gethsemane, and 
Olivet, told their tales of agony, expiation, and glory ; the 
church at home would no doubt have been pleased with the 
choice ; and prophecy seems to connect the destiny of the 
restored nation and even the blessedness of the Gentiles with 
the holy city. All these were strong temptations, but bro- 
therly love conquered them all. There was a mission at 
Jerusalem already ; the missionaries were good men ; their 
forms were different from ours, but their doctrines were the 
same ; there was not a Puseyite among them ; there was room 
enough to labour elsewhere, and hence we chose for our head- 
quarters the ancient city of Damascus. It has 5,000 Jews, 
20,000 Christians, and 75,000 Moslems, and presents, perhaps, 
as promising a field for missionary operations as any other in 
the East. 

B. Missionary Difficulties. The missionary in the East is 
thrown into new and strange circumstances, in the midst of 
which, like an all-involving universal net, he feels himself 
perpetually entangled. We shall mention briefly a few "of 
his difficulties. 

I. The Language. This is the prime and great impedi- 
ment ; and after the fall of Adam the confusion of Babel 
is perhaps the greatest curse of humanity. The Arabic is 
a noble but very difficult language ; has a beautiful character. 



THE LANGUAGE. 115 

and an extensive Kterature ; lias a more complicated and plii- 
losophical granmiar than tlie Greek, and is spoken by sixty 
millions of tlie human race. Several of its sounds are new to 
the European ear, and nearly unattainable after the organs of 
speech and hearing have lost the softness and flexibility of 
infancy. The Arabs delight in fine distinctions, and their ear 
discriminates with unerring accuracy between the lightest 
shades of sound. The sound halek means a ivalker; double the 
aspirate hhalek, and it signifies barber; add a little of the 
hissing guttural sound chalek, and it is the proper word for 
creator. This example may show how careful a preacher 
ought to be in the use of his aspirates before an Arab audi- 
ence. The language is difiuse, flexible (in the sense of She- 
mitish flexibility), and musical in a high degree ; it is not 
composite Kke the Greek, English and German; it moves not 
on stilts like the Latin ; nor does it breathe forth trifles with 
the charming simplicity of the French and Italian. It fails 
mainly in terms for expressing abstract ideas, and is, there- 
fore, unfitted for idealism and philosophical speculation. 
Kant would be absolutely mitranslatable into Arabic. The 
heits, keits, shafts, t/mms, &c., by which attached to the tails 
of words the German can walk aloft among cloudy abstrac- 
tions and unearthly irreducible philosophies, have nothing- 
corresponding in the Arabic ; but in the language of nature 
and the expression of deep impassioned feeling, the Arabic 
yields to no language that I know anything of, not even the 
Greek. It forms its nouns with great regularity ; the conju- 
gation of the verb is much more complicated than the Greek ; 
it forms diminutives as simply as the ItaKan and German, 
and its poetry has as much compass and variety as either the 
German or English. The best grammar in the language is 
written in poetry and contains one thousand lines, and there- 
fore called Alfiie, which denotes that number; in the Hebrew 

I % 



116 



HOW TO LEARN A LANGUAGE. 



poetry we discover few traces of measure and none of rlijone, 
to the Arabic poetry . botli are essential. It is hard to say 
■whether rh}T2ie be peculiar to certain languages or the result 
of refinement and ci^oLisation. The Hebrews had it not ; if 
the Greeks and Romans knew it they despised it ; the French 
like the Arabs have no poetry without it ; the English and 
Germans use it or not at their pleasure. Milton and Klop- 
stock wi'ote in blank Terse, Byron and Goethe prefer rhjTue. 
I have said the Arabic is difficult, and I may take this oppor- 
tunity of stating the best way of acquiring a language spee- 
dily. 1. Think nothing of grammars, lexicons, or books for 
some time, but on the contrary, take a native who knows not 
a word of your language, and say, as I did in Arabic, shu 
hatha ? (what is that ?) his reply gives you the name ; and 
this varied and continued eighteen hours out of the twenty- 
four for a week, will give you the names of all the visible 
objects in the universe. 2. I^ever on any occasion open your 
lips but in the language you want to learn ; this rule is abso- 
lute and must not be broken. 3. The stomach was our best 
teacher in the East. We saw people eating something which 
they called chuhez, and after ten hours' riding, when we come 
to a village we forget not to repeat chuhez, chiibez; nor will 
your thirsty panting lips fail to cry moy, moy, as soon as you 
have heard the sound once repeated by a well ; and now you 
want only one word more, namely, fliis, money, to be fully 
equipped for your journey. This is your stock in trade to 
begin with, and chuhez, moy, and flus — bread, icater, and 
money — will make a way for you among these sixty millions. 
This is the way to learn a language as a dog learns to swim, 
namely, by being thrown into a pond. 4. If you want to learn 
a language speedily you must use the ear, the eye, the mouth, 
and the hand; when you hear the sound you should repeat it, 
write it down and then look at the written word. How does 



HABITS OF THE PEOPLE. CLIMATE. 117 

it come to pass tliat we learn Latin and Greek and yet cannot 
speak them? Because we learn only by the eye. Read your 
Latin and Greek always with a loud yoice ; when yon look 
the dictionary for a word, keep repeatirig that word all the 
time with an audible voice ^ and this will strengthen the 
memory by the double association of the ear and the eye, and 
enable you with equal facility to read and speak the language 
which you have learned. The ignorant who learn languages 
only by the ear, speak but do not write them ; the learned 
who acquire languages by the eye, write but cannot speak 
thehi ; and the man who uses both the eye and the ear will 
write and read them with equal facility. The Arabic is four 
times as difficult as the German. I was as able to preach after 
three months' study in the latter as after twelve in the former. 

II. The Sahits of the People are a great difficulty in your 
way. All is new, strange, and foreign ; you have not only 
much to learn but much to unlearn; you must become a child 
again, your habits are ridiculous and out of place, you are 
awkward and must commence anew the study of customs and 
manners, and this is not so easy as in infancy, when the organs 
were tender, the joints pliable, and the mother's voice the 
teacher ; you cannot sit down on a mat without exciting the 
laughter of the Arabs. It is, therefore, of the utmost im- 
portance that native teachers and preachers should be em- 
ployed in the missions to the heathen and the J ews. 

III. The Climate is a great difficulty. I do not believe 
that the climate of Damascus is worse than that of London 
or Edinburgh, on the contrary, I think it is better ; it is 
more beautiful, more fertilizing, and less changeable ; and the 
Damascenes are, I believe, as long-lived as the cockneys, yet 
five years in Damascus were fuUy ten of my life. So great 
is the difference between the East and the West, two 
sermons in the week were as much labour in Palestine as 



118 



FALSE CHRISTIANITY. GOVERNMENT. 



four in Ireland, and tlie life insurance societies charge more 
tlian twice as mucli in the East as in tlie West. Since the 
year 1842, there have been only four families at different 
times connected with the Damascus Mission ; out of these 
there have been six deaths ; two families were compelled to 
return to England, and only one person has been able to 
remain eight years. The climate is therefore a great obstacle 
in the 'wsxj of missions. 

TV. False, corrupt Christianit't/ is a great difficulty in the 
way of Jewish missions in the East. The Jews and the 
Moslems are equally opposed to pictures and images, to the 
invocation of saints, and the worship of angels. The Papists, 
the Greeks and the Pagans, do all agree in the worship 
of pictures, images, and subordinate deities, and the Jews 
naturally conclude that the whole is idolatry. " See these 
processions, in which an image of the Yirgin is held up 
for the worship of the multitude,^' say the Jews ; "is not 
that idolatry ? If there be idolatry upon the earth, the 
Mariolatry of the Papists is idolatry ; but the coming of 
the Messiah is to abolish idolatry, and therefore he is not 
yet come.^^ Thus you have to unweave the web of ages, and 
thread by thread disentangle the infinite superstition which 
the great spider, the miuderer of the saints of God, has 
thrown over the world. You must convince the Jew that 
Christianity is not idolatrous, or he turns away from the 
whole system in disgust. Yet a deeply-thinking Jew, after 
visiting Rome, became a Christian, observing to his relatives : 
" that no system which was false, could have sustained itself 
so long, and benefited mankind so much in the midst of such 
fearful corruptions and idolatries.*^ 

Y. The Civil Government is a very serious obstacle in the 
missionary's way. The Moslems indeed, as such, throw no 
difficulties in our path ; they are perfectly indifferent ; and 



FAMILY DIFFICULTIES. 



119 



treat tlie Jews and the Jewish missionary, tlie Protestant 
and tlie Papist, tlie Greek and the Maronite, with the same 
haughty withering scorn. All that are not Moslems are dogs 
and swinCy and though they may be of different countries and 
colours, of various size and propensity their nature remains 
the same, Allah yabeedhuna min wijah ilErd; "May Grod blast 
them from the face of the earth." Such is the benevolent 
prayer I have occasionally heard in Damascus. All unbelief 
is one, and while the mission of Mohammed is denied, you 
scarcely deserve to be ranked in the catalogue of men. We 
are therefore free to labour among the Jews, or among the 
Poman CathoKcs, as much as we please, so far as the govern- 
ment is concerned, but yet the mode of government puts into 
the hands of reKgious parties much , political power, which 
they never fail to employ against the missionaries. The 
government is conducted in the following manner. The 
bishop of the Papists is called to the pasha to intermediate 
with the government. The bishop of the Grreeks or the 
patriarch gets a similar summons, with an order to collect 
the proper amount of taxation from the Greeks. The chief 
rabbi too, bows before the lord of the three tails, and pro- 
mises on his head and on his eye, to have the proper sum 
forthcoming on behalf of the Jews. But to enforce payment, 
you must possess power ; good, says the pasha ; the power is at 
your disposal, and if a Jew or a Christian refuses to pay, here 
is a guard of soldiers, lay the delinquent on the ground and 
give him fifty on the bare back, and he will pay immediately. 
We saw the house of the rabbi in J erusalem, surrounded with 
Albanian soldiers, the most impudent and unscrupulous in the 
Turkish empire. This political power in the hands of the 
religious parties, is a serious obstacle in the way of missions 
in the East. 

YI. The Family difficulties are very great. I am of the 



120 



ADVANTAGES IN CELIBACY, 



opinion that in the commencement of missions, and in cases 
wliere tlie difficulties and dangers may be very great, unmarried 
men are tlie best qualified missionaries, if tbey possess in otber 
respects tlie requisite gifts. They are unencumbered ; they 
can move more freely from place to place ; and, above all, 
they do not see the distress and terror of trembling depen- 
dants, whom they have been the means of bringing into 
discomfort and alarm. I refer to circumstances of public 
danger (1 Cor. vii. 26), and not to the ordinary working 
either of ministers or missionaries, for I am thoroughly 
convinced, as I am of my own existence, that the celibacy of 
the popish clergy, instead of elevating them to the purity of 
angels, has far more frequently degraded them below the 
instincts of the brutes. Multitudes of men shut up together 
in ignorance and idleness within the walls of a convent, 
without the discipline of the first ages to mortify the body, 
or the culture of modern times to occupy and stimulate the 
mind, are not likely to create around them an atmosphere 
of high and salubrious morality ; they are much more likely 
in the East, at least, under the influence of the sun and the 
wine of Lebanon (of which they always have the best), to be 
led into those horrid and unmentionable enormities so common 
in the Orient, of which they are generally accused. Place 
now at the knees of these ignorant inexperienced bachelors, 
as they sit in the confessional, the whole female sex, the young 
and the aged, the modest virgin and the fair delinquent, to 
be probed and sifted by the impure questions of Dens' the- 
ology, and you multiply the danger a thousand fold. They 
are no longer the lords of their convents merely ; they are 
possessed of the secrets of families ; they are the directors of 
your wives and mothers and daughters, concerning whose 
family feelings they are, or ought to be, ignorant. But I have 
said enough. I regret the unnatural and unscriptural doc- 



JEWISH FANATICISM. 



121 



trine of clerical celibacy, yet I am convinced that, in times of 
distress and circumstances of extreme difficulty, tlie unmarried 
missionary may be the most accomplished workman in the 
Master's vineyard. 

YII. Jewish Fanaticism. In the "West the Jews share the 
general culture and enlightenments of the nations among 
which they sojourn ; the different sects, parties, and religions, 
often meet upon common ground, and in the intercourse with 
one another, angularities are rubbed off, and the keen edge of 
fanaticism blunted. In the East there is nothing of this ; 
freedom, political rights, public discussion, and free debate, 
have not opened the mind nor relaxed the rigidity of their 
self-sufficient narrow-mindedness. Scorned by all others, the 
persecuted Jews answer scorn with scorn, and hatred with 
still bitterer hate. They never mention the name of Jesus of 
Nazareth. The Talmud indeed forbids it, and instead of 
naming him, they use the contemptuous expression IHIH 
that thing, as their predecessors did in the days of old. Compare 
the avTOQ of the New Testament in the following passages, 
Matt. xii. 24 ; xxvi. 61, 71 ; Luke xxiii. 2 ; John ix. 29. 
This fellow — one Jesus — (Acts xxv. 19), and such expressions 
of contempt and hatred, are carefully preserved among the 
Jews to the present time. The Jews of Damascus, at least 
the more fanatical of them, have the habits of shaking their 
garments, and spitting upon the ground when you mention 
the name of Jesus. This is the highest possible contempt. 
I spit upon your hope (Job xxx. 10 ; Matt. xxvi. 67 ; Mark 
X. 34 ; xiv. 65), and shake the dust from my garments and 
feet against you (Matt, x., xiv. Mark vi. 2). When Mr. 
Doab joined us in Damascus, his old fanatical father used 
every possible charm and incantation against him : he wrote 
his name on a certain kind of paper opposite to the great 
mysterious name Jehovah, and then blotted it out, in order 



122 



SITUATION OF THE MISSIONARY. 



that SO the Grod of Israel miglit blot out his son's name from 
the land of the living. He entertained some thoughts of 
divorcing his wife, inasmuch as she had given birth to an 
apostate son ; and he went occasionally to the grave-yard 
to pray for the death of his son over his intended grave. It 
is not in a brief space of time, without the direct interference 
of Grod, that prejudices so deep and inveterate can be removed ; 
nor does there seem any way left open for the Christian 
missionary, save to labour and pray patiently, or, if it may 
be, overcome their obstinacy in the spirit of meekness and 
love. 

YIII. The Missionary is alone ; everything is new, strange, 
and untried ; he must shape out his own course, and bear the 
responsibility of failure ; he has no Christian brethren with 
whom to take counsel in perplexity ; nor any kind voice to 
gustain him in moments of alarm. Cases of conscience and 
unanticipated circumstances are continually occurring for 
which he has neither rules nor experience. Is it lawful to 
grant a divorce when the wife demands it from the converted 
husband, with whom she will no longer cohabit ? ^Vlien a 
husband and his various wives, whom he equally loves, become 
converted at the same time, what is he to do ? Which is the 
real wife ? Or should he retain them all, or only the first 
married ? Such cases and many similar meet the missionary 
at every turn, and give him no little mental distraction. 

IX. 3Iuch is expected from the Missionary. This is well ; for 
as the forlorn hope, or the storming party in sieges, being 
entrusted with the position of danger, should know how to 
carry themselves nobly in the hour of battle, so the missionary 
should be a brave, bold man, full of faith and the Holy Grhost, 
a man of patience and fortitude, whom danger cannot frighten, 
nor the seductions of ease and home lure from the post of 
duty. And it would not be difficult to select from the field of 



INQUIRY FOR SUCCESS. 



123 



modern missions, a list of noble and heroic men, whose bosoms 
throbbed with love to God and man, and whose character 
sustains and justifies the highest expectations. Brainerd and 
Martyn, and Williams, Judson, Josiah Stack, and many 
others, belong to this deyoted band, whose praise is in all the 
churches, and whose self-denial has rebuked a self-seeking 
eye. Yet I do not hesitate to declare, that the position of a 
missionary is far from being conducive to holiness. He is 
solitary ; every man he meets is an enemy ; every new step 
he takes is in fear and trembling, every word he speaks is 
argument, and his life is one prolonged controversy. Is all 
this not deadening and searing to the affections ? Does the 
heart grow into heavenly-mindedness amidst storms and 
disputations ? We are indeed removed from human helps, 
and all the moorings of earthly friendship are broken ; we 
know how much of the human mingled with our purest joys, 
and this well ; but yet the faith of most of us is so weak, 
that it requires the succours of communion and brotherly love. 

X. What Converts have you made ? is the constant cry, and 
if you cannot present a long list of baptisms and genuine con- 
versions, your labour is pronounced to be in vain, and the 
money of the nation uselessly spent. This is unjust, as well 
as ungenerous. Money is easily counted, and the eye of the 
giver is sharp-sighted enough in following it through all its 
windings and applications. It is not so with moral influence 
and missionary labour. How many barriers must be broken 
down before you get to the conscience of a Jew ? How subtle 
and intangible in its initiatory processes are the ideas and 
notions that influence conviction ? Is success the only proof 
of diligence ? I think it were better to look at the missionary 
labours, and leave the result with God. But look at your own 
parishes and neighbourhood, and teU me what conversions 
have been made during the past year ? Or are you labouring 



124 



MISSIOX-iHY LABOURS. 



under the delusion that yourself and all around you are 
Cliristians and heirs of the heavenly kingdom, because }'ou 
are baptised, and attend the public services on the Lord's day? 
Don't expect from the missionary what you do not expect from 
the mixdster, though the one has ever}i:hing in favour of his 
ministrations, and the other ever}i:hing against them. The 
Lord has, in my opinion, during the last quarter of a century, 
blessed and owned the laboiu^s of the missionaries as much as 
the ministers of the gospel. We have too many baptisms. I 
have resisted the principle of baptising Jews without some 
definite, well-grounded hope of their having become sincere 
and honest followers of the cross of Christ. In the cities of 
Germany there are many thousands of baptised Jews, who 
have no faith, nor hope, nor any one characteristic of 
Christianity ; whom the principle of indifierentism or the 
love of gain or political advantages may have led to prefer 
the Chiistian to the Jewish name, ^ot is there the least 
difference between those that are episcopally baptised and 
those who are not, whatever the defenders of an electrically 
coniniiuiicated Christianity, through the conducting wire of 
the murderers of the saints, may be pleased to maintain. Our 
object is not in the first instance to baptise all that come to 
us, but rather to teach and enlighten those who show an 
inclination to become obedient to the cross. 

C. Missionary Labours. The fij^st and most necessary em- 
ployment of the missionary is to learn the language of the 
country. Had we faith in the living ever-present Grod, he 
might perhaps restore the pentecostal gift of tongues, and 
address the nations once more with his own paternal voice. 
These gifts are, however, no more to be foimd on the earth, 
and the missionary must learn the languages of the nations in 
a natural way. In tliis field he must labour, like a drudge, 



THE LANGUAGE. PREACHING. 



125 



for years, before lie can even commence direct missionary 
"work, and when lie lias tlie grammar and tlie language in- 
tellectiiallv, he is still a very incompetent preacher, inasmuch 
as he fails in the thousand iiiinameable littles included under 
the terms manner, address, intonation, accent, &c., and in which 
one main part of the effectiveness of preaching and piihKc 
speaking consists. I am of opinion, therefore, that there 
ought to be a great missionary college in England, where 
yonng men from all the different nations of the world might 
finish their education, and be thoroughly prepared for the 
gospel ministry. But would not this create great expense ? 
IS'o, but it would save expense, and give you more work and 
more accomplished workmen. It would address the nations 
not only in their own languages, but by their own countiy- 
men, who know their feelings, habits, and modes of thinking. 
It would save the two or three first years of your missionaries' 
Kves, spent in acquiring the languages ; and three years in 
the East are at least equal to six in England, and so the in- 
surance societies will tell you. It would have the advantage 
of engrafting upon the national habits and feelings of these 
young converts the zeal, fervour, and tenacity of the British 
religion and character, and furnishing for the glory of the 
Lord, a new immortal band qualified to surmount all difii- 
culties, brave all dangers, and plant the standard of the cross 
in the remotest and most barbarous regions of the world. 

11. l^ow, as in the days of old, the missionary must labour 
in the 2^}' eacli in g of tlie icord. It is true he cannot at the first, 
generally speaking, find large congregations to hear him. But 
that is no matter, he comes into contact with men, and he 
must preach the gospel to them. In season, out of season, in 
all places, and at all times : by the well, upon the moimtain 
top, or by the sea shore ; in the private house, by the wayside, 
and in the public assembly, like his great Master, he must be 



126 



MISSIONARY LABOURS. 



ever present and ever ready with a word in season for the 
weary and heavy-laden. This is his great aim. His breast 
swells with the love of Christ, and his life, his conduct, and 
all his various acts are streams from that hidden fountain. ISo 
hindrance can impede him, no impediment, save death, can 
silence him (Acts v. 29) ; no boundary but the grave can stop 
the outgoings of his love to the perishing world. Persecuted 
in one city, he quietly goes to another ; imprisoned to-day, he 
gets out to-morrow, and testifies the same thing again ; his 
life is not his own, but Christ's ; his home is not here, but in 
heaven, and all earthly things work together for his good. 
This is one main part of his labour. In Damascus we had 
three services weekly ; one on Saturday in Hebrew for the 
Jews, one in English on Sunday morning for the missionary 
families and English travellers, and one on Sabbath evening 
in Arabic for the general population. 

III. The missionary labours in the distribution of books. 
The New Testament being the charter of our expectation and 
the directory of our life, is generally put into the hand of the 
missionary for free distribution. He puts tracts in his pocket 
when he goes to the streets, and if it be forbidden to give 
them in public, he distributes them at his own house. This 
is one of the most difficult and dangerous parts of his labours, 
nor is there anything to which despotic governments are more 
keenly opposed. A friend of mine was, during the past year, 
imprisoned in Hamburgh for it ; Dr. Marriott was the other 
day condemned to the prison in a Protestant state, and by a 
Protestant government, for giving out tracts against the 
Jesuits in the streets of Carlsruhe ; and an earnest Irish 
Christian, Captain Kelly, was a few weeks ago beaten un- 
mercifully for handing a few Christian tracts to the peasants 
of Switzerland. Dr. Givin was beaten in Moislin for giving 
away tracts to the J ews ; and, for the same offence, with the 



DISTRIBUTION OF BOOKS. 



127 



addition of attempting to preach to the people, I was knocked 
down in the streets of Saint Pauli, and delivered finally from 
the furious mob by the timely interference of a few stout 
English sailors. Whence comes this antipathy ? Among the 
people it arises from deep hatred to the gospel, and to eyery- 
thing that would bridle their passions. In the large towns 
the masses in Germany seem to be thoroughly leavened with 
the principles of infidelity, nor do I see any hope for them till 
an order of men shall arise in the German churches who, like 
the Methodists in Wesley's time, shall fearlessly preach the 
gospel to them in the streets, in the fields, and on the moun- 
tain tops. The governments oppose all free religious move- 
ments, not from hatred to the gospel generally, but from 
policy. They say, If you preach, the demagogue will 
harangue in the open air ; if you distribute medicine, others 
will in the same way diffuse their poison ; we hold it prudent 
to forbid both. This was the reason given by the Senate of 
Hamburgh for preventing preaching in the open air. In free 
Prussia we might expect more liberty, yet we do not find it. 
Before I obtained liberty from the police to preach in Bonn, the 
pastor of the place had to be consulted, and his report being 
favourable, the police finally handed me ix permission, in which 
it was stated that it might be withdrawn at any time. The 
work of my Colporteur was entirely interdicted, although the 
two books which he was employed to distribute were the Holy 
Scriptures and Keith's Evidence of the Christian Religion. I 
shall record the date of this decree of the governor of the 
Rhine provinces. On Sunday, Dec. 28th, 1851, being the 
last Sabbath of the year, when I returned from dispensing 
the holy communion, I found the venerable document. My 
preaching was in present circumstances permitted, my tract 
and Bible distribution entirely forbidden. So the matter rests 
at present ; and I have only to add, that in Syria I found the 



128 



MISSIONARY LABOURS. 



government of tlie Porte both more just and more generous. 
Germany is governed by a great system of policemen, wbo 
spread over the Continent like a spider's web, bring in tbeir 
reports to tbe central holes, where the master- spiders sit ready 
to run upon their prey. This cuts up every principle of 
freedom by the roots, and when the coils are drawn a little 
tighter we may expect another revolution. 

TV. Intercourse with the Jews. This we have in various 
waj^s. We open our houses, and meet freely, with the hospi- 
talities of the land, coffee and pipes, all the Jews who may be 
inclined to visit us ; we go to their houses as soon as we are 
assured of a welcome, and quietly discuss with them the 
evidences of Christianity : we meet them in the streets and 
bazaars, where we form acquaintances, get into conversation, 
and perhaps leave a tract or a bible ; we go occasionally to 
their synagogues, where, after the service, we generally find 
Jews ready to hear what we have to say on the subject of 
religion. In this way the missionary must work himself into 
connection with the people, in order to find a channel for the 
messages of Divine mercy. He cannot depend on the simple 
preaching, for they are not inclined to hear ; he cannot 
depend on regular discourses, for oftentimes the hearers inter- 
rupt the speaker, contradicting or blaspheming, or demanding 
explanations. In his intercourse with the Jews, the conduct 
and character of Jesus should always be before his mind ; the 
Jews are sharp- sighted to spy out inconsistencies, and excel- 
lent judges of character. Love,^ patience, and forbearance 
should rule his conduct and demeanour in the presence of the 
rejected people of God. When a man gets angry in argu- 
ment, he is nearly overthrown. The Jews know this well, and 
use every means to throw you off your guard. 'Now they 
pour forth their vile calumnies against Mary, and the next 
breath may be laden with horrid blaspheming against her Son. 



THE PRESS. 



129 



But be ye patient, and bear all as He did, and answer with 
meekness those that oppose, if peradventure God may lead 
them to the knowledge of the truth. Love conquers all 
things ; and as the spirit of love conquered us, so can He melt 
their obstinacy, and win them for the cross. God is love. 

y. We use the Press as a part of missionary labour. The 
labours of the Bible Society are in this respect truly amazing. 
During the last forty- six years that great and truly national 
institution has promoted directly or indirectly the translation, 
printing, or distribution of the sacred Scriptures, in whole or 
in part, in 144 languages, through 166 versions, of which 114 
are translations never printed before. Thus the missionary 
work of the last fifty years has added more to the literature 
of the world, in the way of mastering foreign languages and 
facilitating the intercourse of nations, than all the travellers, 
philosophers, and linguists, since the world began. Other 
societies have been equally busy in this field, and bibles, 
tracts, and standard Christian authors have been multiplied 
and copiously distributed in most of the known languages and 
dialects of the world. The American press at Beyrout has 
been specially prolific, and the great movements that are now 
shaking the kingdom of darkness in the East, were mainly 
occasioned by its multitudinous publications. Churches are 
forming ; the priests of ignorance and imposture are trembling 
for their golden shrines ; a native Christian ministry is being 
formed; schools of a really Christian and literary character 
are established in many cities and to^Tis ; the law is altered 
in so far that the Christian or Jew who becomes Mohamme- 
dan and relapses, is not to be put to death; the free exercise 
of the Protestant religion is admitted and recognised bj^ the 
government, and a noble band of missionaries continues to 
hold up in the stagnant Orient the banner of the Cross. 
These great changes may be attributed under God to three 



130 



MISSIONARY LABOURS. 



causes — ^tlie American press, the English bishop of Jerusalem, 
and Sir Stratford Canning, the British ambassador at Con- 
stantinople. 

YI. Schools. We have estabKshed schools in Damascus and 
some of the neighbouring tillages. The Americans led the 
way in this department of missions also, by their school in 
Beyrout and their college in Abeih, at which a taste for know- 
ledge was in a certain degree communicated both to the lower 
and the higher classes of society. There is an Episcopal school 
or college in Jerusalem, and others under the English bishop's 
care are being established at S^^chem, IN^azareth, and the chief 
cities of the lani. This is beginning at the right place, and 
in the right way. The young heart, undepraved by the 
customs and deceits of the world, is open to the impressions of 
Divine truth, and likely to retain them. The state of educa- 
tion in the East, both among Christians and Moslems, is 
deplorably low and defective, and a really good system of 
education, by opening and enlarging the minds of the rising- 
generation, is more likely than an}i:hing else to conquer the 
obstinacy of priests and muftis, and clear the way for the 
Christian faith. Knowledge is power, and the schoolmaster 
is the real governor of the world. Multitudes in the city of 
Damascus, even in the middle classes, have not the remotest 
idea of the position and magnitude of the British empire. 
We conquered Syria, it is true, and blew up in a few hours the 
ramparts of Beyrout and Acca, but we did so as they think by 
the command of the Sultan, who, not wishing to shed the pui'e 
blood of the true believers, ordered his slaves the unbelieving 
English to depose the rebellious Pasha, and restore the 
province to their master. A little geography would cure this 
ignorance, and remove such crude misconceptions ; and if good 
schools and colleges can be established in the East, we may 
speedily anticipate, in the emancipation of the human 



MISSIONARY SUCCESS. 



131 



mind, the downfall both of reKgious imposture, and political 
tyranny. 

YII. The Protestant missionaries use only proper and 
legitimate means. We cannot go with great swelling words of 
vanity to deceive the simple ; we dare not gain converts by 
means of lies, treachery, and bribes ; we cannot come like the 
French Popish missionaries of India, asserting that we have 
issued from the mouth of the Indian Grod, and are com- 
missioned to add to the former ceremonial the rite of baptism ; 
we do not, like the Jesuits, (Lamartine, page 108,) baptise 
children or invalids surreptitiously, under the pretence of 
giving them medicine ; we dare not, like the semi-popish 
Southgate, kindle the fires of persecution against brethren 
who may in some respects differ from our opinions ; and we 
abhor the diabolical dogma of Popery that we may do evil 
that good may come. Our principle of missionary operation 
is simply scriptural and easily comprehended — the manifesta- 
tion of the truth in love. We seek not a change of name 
merely, but a change of heart also ; and in labours, afllictions, 
or persecutions, our constant prayer is, that the Lord may add 
to the church daily such as shall be saved. Our aim is noble, 
the means are scriptural, and the God of missions has crowned 
our labours with success. 

D. Missionary Success. Let us as distant spectators cast a 
glance over the wide field of Missions, that we may see really 
what is done, what is at present doing, and what yet remains 
to be done. Has Grod, indeed, sealed with his approbation 
the mighty movement of the past half century for enlighten- 
ing the heathen, and enlarging, in every way, the kingdom 
of grace ? Has providence accredited the divine promises 
by manifest tokens of approval, so that the missionary and 
the friends of missions may be encouraged and strengthened, 

k2 



132 



SUCCESS or MISSIONS 



not only by tlie intimations of the word of God, but also by 
the fruits of righteousness springing up all around? 

1. 1. As to the Jewish nation, everything seems to indicate 
that great masses of them have arrived at the turning-point 
in their destiny, and their future history, for good or for 
evil, must depend on the direction which the novel move- 
ment may be led to take. A million of J ews, and more, have 
broken the chains of rabbinical slavery and superstition, and, 
Avithout finally casting off Moses, have sworn eternal enmity 
to the Talmud and its traditions. This is an interesting 
fact, occurring, as it does, at the moment when the church of 
God and the nations of the world have united to reject their 
barbarous policy of neglect and persecution towards them. 
The Jewish heart felt the change, and by one stroke of cor- 
responding sympathy, a million of the seed of Abraham have 
dared, in defiance of time-honoured customs and venerable 
rabbins, to assert their liberty as citizens and as men. This 
is a great fact, and must never be forgotten in our examina- 
tion of the signs of the times. 

2. We are in the habit of contemplating the Jews 
mostly as the banlvcrs, jewellers, and money-changers of the 
earth, who, like a ubiquitous swarm of leeches, suck the life 
out of the nations, and to whom we are under no obligations, 
save those of mortgages and bills of exchange. This is an 
unjust estimation of their character. They have ever asserted, 
and during the last few years have pre-eminently asserted, 
their claims as a literary nation. The greatest traveller living 
is Joseph Wolff; the greatest church historian of the last 
ages was the Jew, Dr. JSTeander, the successful defender of 
Christianity against the attacks of David Strauss. A con- 
siderable sprinkling of the best ]3astors in the German 
churches are Jews, and everywhere throughout Germany 
they exercise a powerful influence over the press and the 



AMONG THE JEWS. 



133 



literature of tlie country. Lessing was a Jew; tlie subtle 
doubts of Nathan the Wise were the inspirations of a free- 
tbinldng Jew. Capadoce, Ennna de Lissau, Herscbell, and 
many others, are noble specimens from the stock of Israel of 
that pure holiness, and thorough devotedness to the will of 
Gfod, which it is the glory of Christianity to impart. During 
the last fifty years there has been little persecution of them 
in Europe, and yet thousands, and tens of thousands, have 
been baptized, their families incorporated with the visible 
church, and their children brought up in the Christian faith. 
It is calculated that more sincere converts, from the seed of 
Abraham, have been yielded to the church during the last half 
century than during the previous thousand years. Do not 
the stations of Jewish missions encircle the world, and is not 
one main band of the missionaries themselves converted Jews ? 
In Persia, Palestine, and among the Teutonic nations, many 
of the boldest and most persevering heralds of the cross are 
children of Abraham, and the first English bishop of the 
holy city was a Jew. Are not these the signs of a wonder- 
fal national movement among them ? And may we not hope 
that the powers and faculties of that wonderfid people may 
be soon fully given to the Lord ? Undoubtedly the success 
of Jewish missions, when contemplated as an isolated fact, 
has not been very great, and many of them have been h}^o- 
crites and deceivers. But that success will appear wonderful, 
and every way worthy of the God of Jacob, when we con- 
sider the barriers to be surmounted, the hatred arising from 
ages of contempt and persecution which was to be overcome, 
the worldliness, obstinacy, and national pride, which impeded, 
and still impedes, the Jewish missionary in every step of his 
progress. How could we expect them to hear us ? We had 
plundered and persecuted them, hated, despised, and insulted 
them during eighteen centuries ! When I think of the bar- 



134 



SUCCESS OF mSSIONS 



riers wliicli have been broken down, and tbe first-fruits wbicb 
bave already been gatbered in, I am amazed at tbe mag- 
nitude of God's mercy, and tbe all- conquering power of 
Cbristian love. May tbe yeil soon fall from tbe venerable 
face of Moses, and tbe Hope of Israel once more fill tbe 
nation's beart. Fulfil tby word and promise towards tbem 
tbou faitbful Sbepberd of Israel, and let tbe testimony of tby 
servants among tbem, and to tbem, be accompanied witb tbe 
demonstrations of tbe Spirit and of power. 

" From every stormy wind that blows, 
From every swelling tide of woes, 
There is a calm, a safe retreat, 
'Tis found beneath Thy mercy-seat." 

II. We turn now, for a moment, to tbe Heathen, tbe second 
great field of missionary labour, and Ave are still more amazed 
at tbe success witb wbicb tbe Lord bas blessed tbe faitb of 
His servants. Let us enumerate some of tbe facts connected 
witb tbe missionary movement of tbe present time, tbat we 
may be tbe more able to trace tbe designs of tbe Almigbty 
Huler in tbe marcb of His adorable providence. 

1. Can it be from any otber source tban God — from any 
otber fountain tban His love, tbat all at once, and in all tbe 
true cburcbes of Cbristendom, tbe spirit of missions sbould 
burst fortb in irresistible energy ? Is it not a carrjang fortb 
of tbe movement of beavenly compassion wbicb brougbt tbe 
Son of God to our world ? Printing bad already opened tbe 
public minds of nations, and tbe manufacture of spectacle- 
glasses bad put it in tbe power of tbe aged to read tbe Word 
of God, wben tbe qualified agents are formed on all bands, as 
by encbantment, to carry into every region of tbe world, 
savage and civilised, tbe messages of Divine love ; and lo ! 
in tbe midst of all tbis entbusiasm and self-devotion, tbe 



AMONG THE HEATHEN. 



135 



Bible Society starts into life, at the very moment when Bibles 
were needed, and puts into the hands of the heralds of sal- 
vation copies of the Holy Scriptures by the million, and in 
almost all the languages of mankind. What eye but that of 
God could have guided and subordinated so many and so 
various events ? It was not chance, but Providence, which 
first, by wars, and rumours of wars, broke down the barriers 
of nations, and then called upon the swift messengers of 
grace to go in and possess the land. 

2. Have not our missionaries found access to the hearts of 
many in all nations ? Where is the nation on the wide 
earth to which the Gospel message has not been brought ? 
Many, indeed, reject it among the heathen, as many reject 
it home, yet have its saving effects been manifested in the 
conversion of thousands, and its humanizing efficacy in the 
civilisation of whole nations and tribes. Have not semi- 
savages listened to the melting words of Brainerd, and 
yielded themselves to the Lord Jesus ? Henry Martyn passed 
through the East like a bright star, and left a track of light 
behind him ; the cold climate and frozen hearts of Green- 
land could not resist the love of God to lost sinners from the 
lips of the devoted Moravian brethren. In the South Seas 
whole islands, tribes, and nations, have cast their idols to the 
moles and the bats, and joined the hosts of the conquering 
and everlasting religion. The noble Williams, and others, 
lost their Kves in the glorious struggle, but, like their 
great Master, they conquered in their dying, and slew by 
being slain. In the island of Madagascar we have the 
bloody but glorious scenes of the apostolic ages transacted 
before our eyes, in so far, at least (not to speak of miracles), 
that faith in the Lord Jesus is still seen to be invincible, and 
love to His cross mightier than the terrors of the stake, more 
constraining to the soul than the voice of a multitude, or the 



136 



SUCCESS OF MISSIONS 



sound of many waters. Martyred souls, like Stephen, have 
ascended from that island to the throne of God, imploring, 
like him, the forgiveness of their murderers, and presenting 
specimens of Christian faith and firmness, in which the apos- 
tolic ages might have gloried. We have been learning, in 
these latter days, a new tongue — -the language of love ; of 
action and not of speech merely ; of suffering, of triumph 
and death-defying zeal — the Gallilaeische Sprache (as the 
Germans call it) ; the Galilean language,^' by which all 
the members of the Living Head should bear testimony, 
living and dying, to their crucified King. Is this not a great 
fact in the history of the nations, which should be recognised 
and attended to amidst the political clamours and confused 
noise of battles, of which the world and the world's history 
are so full ? But the world is deaf still to claims which it 
cannot comprehend ; and the conversion of savages, the new 
faith of barbarians, the fires of persecution which the cross 
has kindled, may be interesting to missionaries and benevolent 
enthusiasts, but are far beneath the notice of warriors, states- 
men, heroes, and philosophers. The old law of the animal 
creature (ipv^iKog) remains mirepealed. 1 Cor. ii. 14. 

3. But let us take an example or two of special localities 
and societies, that we may ascertain more clearly what the 
Lord has wrought. India is our own possession, and is 
better known to us than any other field of foreign missions. 
What, then, is the report which the Calcutta Eeview gives 
of the state of religion and the progress of Christian mis- 
sions ? It is the following : — At the close of 1850, fifty 
years after the modern English and American Societies had 
begun their labours in Hindostan, and thirty years since 
they have been carried on in full efiiciency, the stations at 
which the gospel is preached in India and Ceylon, are 256 
in number, and engage the services of 403 missionaries, 



IN INDIA. 



137 



belonging to 22 missionary societies. Of these mission- 
aries, 21 are ordained natives. Assis.ted by 551 native 
preachers, they proclaim the word in the bazaars and mar- 
kets, not only at their several stations, but in the districts 
around them. They have spread far and wide the doctrines 
of Christianity, and have made a considerable impression 
even upon the unconverted population. They have founded 
309 native churches, containing 17,356 members, or commu- 
nicants, of whom 5,000 were admitted on the evidence of 
their being converted. These church members form the 
nucleus of a native Christian community, comprising 103,000 
individuals, who regularly enjoy the blessings of Bible in- 
struction, both for young and old. The efforts of the mis- 
sionaries in the cause of education are now directed to 1,345 
day-schools, in which 83,700 boys are instructed through the 
medium of their own vernacular language ; to 73 boarding- 
schools, containing 1,992 boys, who reside upon the mission- 
aries' premises, and are trained up under their eye ; and to 
128 day-schools, with 14,000 boys and students receiving 
a sound scriptural education, through the medium of the 
English language. Their efforts in female education em- 
brace 354 day-schools, with 11,500 girls; and 91 boarding- 
schools, with 2,450 girls, taught almost exclusively in the 
vernacular languages. The Bible has been wholly trans- 
lated into ten languages, and the I^ew Testament into five 
others, not reckoning the Serampore versions. In these ten 
languages a considerable Christian literature has been pro- 
duced, and also from twenty to fifty tracts, suitable for dis- 
tribution among the Hindu and Masselman population. Mis- 
sionaries have also established, and now maintain, twenty- 
five printing establishments. While preaching the gospel 
regularly in these numerous tongues of India, missionaries 
maintain English services in 59 chapels for the edification of 



138 



ENCOURAGING REVIEW. 



our countrjrmen. The total cost of this vast missionary 
agency during the past year amounted to 187,000/. ; of 
which 33,500/. were contributed in India, not by the native 
community, but by Europeans." This brief simimary is 
surely enough to encourage our hearts and strengthen our 
hands in the cause of missions. We have, indeed, no cause 
for boasting, but much for humiliation and prayer, for the 
work has been carried on like the building of the Temple of 
Jerusalem, in the midst of much weakness and division on 
our part, and much mockery and derision on the part of 
Sanballat and the modern Horonites. ^Nevertheless, the 
trembling ark has been steadily carried forward, and the 
banner of the Cross held up before the nations. God has 
graciously confirmed the great missionary movement by the 
seal of His approbation, and we can only long and pray for 
more labourers to be sent into the harvest. What are these 
206 stations in the midst of 100,000,000 of men ? They 
are as nothing. Ten times that number would not meet the 
necessities of the case, nor exhaust the resources of Christian 
Britain, if our love and compassion were properly awakened 
for the perishing heathen. May we be stirred up to do our 
duty in this respect, and may the Lord sustain, with His 
presence and blessing, the missionaries, and the friends of 
missions, in their noble enterprise. 

" 'Mid burning climes and frozen plains, 
Where pagan darkness brooding reigns, 
Oh ! mark their steps, their fears subdue. 
And nerve their arm and clear their view. 

When worn by toil their spirits fail, 
Bid them the glorious future hail ; 
Bid them the crown of life survey, 
And onward urge in faith their way," 



AMERICAN MISSIONS. 



139 



4. Let US now give a glance at the operations of the 
American Board of Foreign Missions. This will also shew 
us the success with which God has crowned missionary labour 
in the present age, and at the same time make us more 
acquainted with our American brethren. " The number of 
missions is 26 — embracing 93 stations, at which are 134 
missionaries, 10 of whom are physicians, 5 physicians not 
ordained, 7 schoolmasters, 7 printers and bookbinders, and 
14 other male, and 175 female assistant missionaries — in all, 
342 labourers sent forth from this country ; associated with 
whom, or at out-stations under their care, are 20 native 
preachers, and 132 other native helpers (exclusive of the 
native teachers of the free schools, sustained by several mis- 
sions), raising the whole number of labourers at the mis- 
sions, and dependent principally on the Board for support, 
to 494. Gathered by these missionaries, and under their 
pastoral care, are 73 churches, to which have been added, 
during the last year, 1,500 members, and in which are now 
embraced, not including some hundreds of hopeful converts 
in western Asia, 24,824 members. 

" In the department of education there are, under the care 
of these missionaries, 7 seminaries for educating native 
preachers and teachers, furnished with libraries, and various 
kinds of apparatus adapted to their object, and embracing 
487 pupils ; also 34 boarding-schools, in which are 854 male, 
and 533 female pupils, making 1,874 boarding pupils brought 
imder constant Christian instruction and influence in the 
mission families, with reference to their being qualified to 
exert a greater and more decidedly Christian influence 
among their own people ; also 602 free day-schools, in which 
are 29,171 pupils, including those at the Sandwich Islands, 
which owe their existence and efficiency to the mission, and 
are still sustained and guided in part by it; making the 



140 



SUBSIDIAHY OBJECTS 



whole number of pupils, more or less under tlie care of tlie 
missions, 31,045. 

" Connected witli tlie mission are 15 printing establish- 
ments, liaving 32 presses and 40 founts of types, and fur- 
nished for printing in 27 languages. Five of these missions 
are also provided with type and stereotype foundiies. For 
11 of the other missions, printing is executed, from year to 
year, as theii' wants require, at presses not owned by the 
Board ; making the whole number of languages, exclusiye 
of the English, in which printing is done for the mission, 
37. The nimiber of copies of works printed dm-ing the 
year, including tracts, exceeds 460,000, and the whole 
number of pages printed dui'ing the year is not less than 
40,000,000. The whole munber of pages printed since the 
commencement of the mission, exceeds 535,000,000." Such 
was the state of the mission in 1846, and no doubt, diuing 
the past seven years, the work has been much enlarged and 
extended. It would be very easy to take other societies, and 
to show that their Lord has crowned their labours with simi- 
lar success. But this will suffice for the present, with the 
single statement, that, perhaps, the most simj)le-hearted and 
successful of all modern missionaries are the Moravian 
brethren ; and that the history of theii' missions is more 
interesting and captivating than any romance of modern 
times. Their operations in Greenland form an incident in 
the general story of the most thrilling kind. 

5. The Subsidiary Ohjeds which the missionary move- 
ment has served to promote, are of more than ordinary in- 
terest to well- formed minds. In an age of material interests 
and cold calculations of profit and loss, the moralist beholds, 
with pleasure, the healthful influence of such societies upon 
public vii^tue and national manners. Suffering and self- 
denial are inscribed upon theii- banners, and the story of 



PROMOTED BY MISSIONS. 



141 



tlieir labours, perseciition and deatli, lifts tlie mind, for a 
moment, out of the eartli-criist of materialism with, wbicli 
we are surrounded in this money-making and money-loving 
England. The philanthropist is well pleased with the pro- 
gress of civilisation ; the freeman hails with transports the 
efforts to emancipate and elevate the slave ; the naturalist 
finds in this missionary police a means of becoming ac- 
quainted with the plants and animals of all climes and cli- 
mates ; Ellis, Williams, Eisk, Smyth, Wilson, and others, 
occupy a high position in the temple of literature ; the 
antiquarian, whose delight is to plunder musty libraries and 
archaeological temples, turns to the missionary for manu- 
scripts and specimens ; and for the student of humanity the 
missionary enterprise is all- important, as it reveals man in 
all his phases of moral degradation or intellectual refine- 
ment ; while the Bible expositor finds in missionary journeys 
and journals the means of illustrating many obscure pas- 
sages in the word of God. These are not the missionary's 
aim. His heart is filled with higher and nobler motives 
than those of science, literature, and human fame. The 
love of Christ constraineth him. He is sent to preach the 
gospel to the poor, and of this great end he never loses 
sight, while all the above-mentioned subsidiary advantages 
and interests flow, without any effort on his part, from the 
nature and necessity of his position. 



142 



DRESS AND THE HUMAN BODY. 



CHAPTER YII. 

CUSTOMS OF THE ORIENTALS CONNECTED WITH DRESS AND 
THE HUMAN BODY. 

A. General Observations on Dress, and the Differences between the East and 
the West regarding it. I. The Orientals require less of it than we do. 

II. The Nature of the Garments is different. III. They do not Change 
their Garments as we do. IV. They Dress more richly than we do. 
V. Oriental Tailoring described. VI. Dress a Characteristic of the 
Human Eace. VII. Garments Typical; Colours; I.White; 2. Black; 
3. Green; 4. Blue; 5. Purple; 6. What Colour prevails in Damascus. 
VIII. Two Garments generally necessary. — B. The various Parts of 
Dress described as at present worn in Damascus; Customs; Illustra- 
tions of Scripture. I. The Feet; 1. The Foot-dress described; 2. 
Sandals and Shoes distinguished ; 3. Laying off the Shoes; its various 
Significations. 11. The Loins ; 1. Trousers, Breeches, Pantaloons, Sher- 
wal; 2. The Girdle or Zinnar described; 3. The Uses of the Girdles. 

III. The Breast, Shoulder, Arms, and Neck ; 1. Customs connected with 
the Bosom ; 2. Customs connected with the Shoulder ; 3. Customs con- 
nected with the Arm ; the Bare Arm ; Tattooings on the Arms ; Orna- 
ments for the Arms. IV. The Hand; 1. Peculiar meaning of the word 
Hand in the East; 2. Kissing the Hand; 3. Laying the Hand on what 
they Swear by ; 4. Striking with the Hand ; 5. No Gloves used in the 
East; 6. Saluting with the Hand; 7. Washing the Hands ; 8. The Eight 
Hand more Honourable than the Left ; 9. Dyeing or Staining the Hands. 
V. The Head : 1st. The Head-dresses described ; 2nd. The Hair , 1. 
Shaven off; 2. Denotes fierce Passion ; 3. Anointing the Hair; 3rd. The 
Beard; 1. Uses of the Beard; the History and Practice of Shaving; 2. 
Swearing by the Beard; 3. Dyeing the Beard; 4th. The Eyes; various 
Customs described; 5th. The Face; Ear-rings, and Nose Jewels ; various 
Practices connected with them : 6th. The Veil ; Varieties, Nature and 
Uses. 

A. — GrENERAL observations on dress, and the differences 
between the East and the West regarding it. 



LITTLE CLOTHES NEEDED IN THE EAST. 143 

I. The first observation which we deem it necessary to make 
is, that in the East we require less of it than in the West. 
The climate is fine, the air generally calm and serene, and 
with the exception in some places of a month or two in the 
winter, there is little or no necessity for clothes at all except 
on moral grounds. In Upper Egypt and many other parts, 
the children and youth of both sexes grow up to maturity in 
a state of nudity, and many of the Fakirs or rigid Moham- 
medan saints pass their whole lifetime in the open air, in the 
most disgusting filth, nudity, fanaticism, prayers, gesticula- 
tions, and abominations of eyery kind. These saints surpass 
in austerity and rigour of endurance the most accomplished 
self-tormentors of the papacy, and as is natural in both cases 
the transition is easy and frequent to the other extreme of 
excessive indulgence and ferocious licentiousness. The Car- 
melite walks through the world barefooted, and the Fakir 
without clothing at all, and the motive is the same in both. 

See how humble I am, how much I am distinguished from 
other men." These naked madmen are highly respected in 
the East ; they go where they please and do what they please, 
and their acts, however infamous and disgusting, are not only 
innocent, but praiseworthy and meritorious. They are 
above all ordinary rules, and can be judged of only and 
truly contemplated from the celestial position which they 
have attained. Theft, plunder, lying, and adultery, are in 
these vagabonds no marks of guilt and pollution ; on the 
contrary, all these and every other act to which they may 
feel themselves impelled, privately or publicly, with man or 
woman, with the aged or the young, are ascribed to the direct 
influence of the Deity, and submitted to with a joyous re- 
signation. It is with apostasy as with imposture. The 
popish saint has his own code of morals and his own court of 
appeal. He may do what he pleases. His dreams are all 



GARMENTS THIN AND LOOSE. 



heavenly visions. His ravings are inspirations and his self- 
flagellation means bearing the cross of Christ. He may do 
evil that good may come ; he may indulge in pious frauds 
without limit ; he may for his own or the church's advan- 
tage know one thing and assert another ; no man thinks the 
less of Father Newman for believing lies and sanctioning 
lying miracles ; nor is it even necessary to him as a popish 
saint that he should believe these fables to be true. He has 
only to throw himself into the system of his associates, and 
without special examination authenticate the whole on their 
authority. It did not prevent the seraphic doctor from 
being canonised, that he erased the name of Jehovah from the 
Psalms and inserted that of the Virgin Mary ; history gives 
no example of a line of princes more base and immoral, more 
worldly, ambitious, and infamous as a whole, than the popes, 
yet they are venerated by millions as the vicars of Jesus 
Christ. In India, Turkey, and Italy, it is all the same. 
Moralit}^ is separated from religion, and saintship gives a 
license to crime. But the old Romans in their theatres 
used vitrea vestimenta, which concealed nothing ; our modern 
fashionables, especially among the ladies, do nearly the same 
thing, leading the poet of all circles and the idol of his own 
to exclaim in honest indignation, " They have very thin 
clothing and too little of it." Go to the banks of the 
Ganges, and see multitudes of naked men and women stand- 
ing waiting for an eclipse, and ready to obtain salvation in 
the bosom of the sacred river. Multitudes in many Eastern 
countries live in a state of nakedness, and aU of them use 
less clothing than we do. 

II. Our garments are tight, theirs are loose. The feet 
are mostly bare ; gloves are in most places unknown, and 
when known, as they are in Damascus, they are never used ; 
the trowsers are loose, wide, and inelegant ; the arms or 



GARiMENTS NOT OFTEN CHANGED. 145 

sleeves of the coat are wide and open to admit abundance of 
air, and the girdle around the loins unites and fastens all. 
The girdle serves the purpose of suspenders by being tied 
firmly round the loins. All above and below is quite loose, 
and gives full and perfect liberty for the action of the body. 
Hence they are able to rise up and sit down on the ground 
with great elegance and ease. No army tailor has, like the 
bear with its young, squeezed them into shape, or made like 
Aristotle out of two legged animals men ! The all- wise 
Creator has .given the fluid of the blood uniformity of tem- 
perature, so that in all places and in all circumstances it 
remains in the same state of warmth, and the great object of 
clothing in so far as regards the health is to keep the body 
in a nearly uniform temperature. Clothes give no heat ; 
they only preserve the warmth communicated from the body, 
and for this purpose in northern climates woollen is the best, 
cotton the next best, and linen the least suited of all clothes. 
As to modes, the Orientals are, I think, far before us. They 
swathe not their infants in rollers, the young women are not 
laced up to the bursting point with stays, skin tight boots 
and shoes are unknown. We owe much deformity and pre- 
matm-e death to the stays. 

III. They do not change their garments so often as we do. 
It is very common in European nations, if not universal, to 
take off the clothes in going to bed. This seems a cleanly, 
good, and healthful habit. The ancient Jews did not (Deut. 
xxiv. 13) change their garments on retiring to rest, and 
neither do the Orientals of the present time. In the cities 
where civilisation and wealth have multipKed the luxuries of 
life, baths are very common, and the Moslems in general and 
the Turks in particular are passionately fond of them, yet 
they are not a clean people. Custom indeed delights in 
showing its wild freaks and inconsistencies in the different 

L 



146 



RICHNESS OF DRESS. 



nations. They wash, their bodies often, their garments 
rarely ; the Bedouin wears his shirt till it falls in rags from 
his shoulders ; the Moslems, even in the cities, rarely sweep 
their houses, and while submitting pimctiliously to all legal 
ablutions, they bear up against myriads of insects in their 
houses, and in their garments, with the patience and heroism 
of martyrs. Grreatness and meanness, cleanliness and filth, 
meet and mingle strangely in their habits. It is the same 
with ourselves, if we knew it. The French are an elegant 
and refined nation, yet I have seen in their windows bread 
and cakes under the most abominable and disgusting shapes 
which the imagination could devise ; they can tolerate 
tyrants, m.urders, barricades, streets swimming with human 
blood, yet the appearance of a butcher in the public streets 
shocks Parisian delicacy of sentiment. They separate more 
than most nations the courtesies from the sanctities of human 
Hfe. 

TV. In the East they dress more richly than we do. This 
is natural. Those require most to be worth money who are 
worth nothing else ; and when fame, wisdom, eloquence, and 
intellect find little scope for exercise and distinction, it is 
natural to seek it in dress. 'Not the broad cloth but the 
button distinguishes the servant from his master in England, 
while in the East the pashas and the wealthy magnates of 
the cities and provinces appear in all the pomp and splendour 
of Oriental magnificence. The horse is an Arab steed worth 
a thousand pounds, the saddle is ornamented with gold and 
silver, and all the trappings are of the most costly kind. 
The rider appears in state rolled up in a profusion of the 
most expensive shawls ; his turban and girdle may, united, 
cost five hundred pounds. Shelleby, a merchant in Damascus, 
took ofi* the girdle which he wore and ofiered it to me for 
fifty pounds, and he would not take less ; the mouth-piece of 



ATTENTION TO FASHION. 



147 



a wealfhy Moslem's pipe is set in diamonds radiant with 
beauty, and may have cost thousands ; his sword, his pistols, 
and his dagger, are all ornamented in the same sumptuous 
manner. Our distinctions are crosses, stars, and garters, 
signs of sterling value in the world of honour, as bank notes 
are in the world of commerce. In the East, credit is un- 
known in both worlds, and the thing, not the symbol, is the 
object of veneration. In Europe, the Russians are most dis- 
tinguished for the number and variety of their decorations, 
which seems to arise from the preponderance of the military 
system in their government. In England these stars of 
honour are distributed with a sparing hand, and are, there- 
fore, highly respected. Sir before a man's name in England 
is more honourable, and represents more, than Count does in 
Germany. On the whole, whatever may be said against 
titles of honour, by those who envy them, or those, on the 
other hand, who would reduce human hopes to a gross mate- 
rialism, the economist will regard them as the cheap rewards 
of honourable service, and the philosopher as the most refined 
and intellectual of human distinctions. The least noble of all 
titular decorations is the nobility of the money-bag. 

Y. You are not to suppose, from anything that has been 
said, that the Orientals do not pay special attention to the 
fashions. On the contrary, tailoring is carried to a point of 
very high perfection in Damascus and other Eastern capitals. 
Indeed, the tailor rises into importance in all nations, as 
luxury, civilisation, and the fine arts make progress. In the 
premature stages of society, the tailor, the dentist, and many 
other functionaries of modern refinement are unknown. In 
some parts of America, society is resolved into its original 
elements, and every man must be his own butcher, baker, 
shoe-maker, and tailor. A magistrate from Upper Canada 
told me he went to the market (fifty miles ofi") for nothing 

L 2 



148 



DRESS A CHAllACTERISTIC OF MAN. 



whatever but tea and salt. The robes that envelope the mascu- 
line limbs of the free Bedouin, require no nice adjustment of 
skirt and body, sleeve and gusset. If every Englishman, as 
Channing shows us, may become his own washerwoman, so 
may free Arabs and Americans become their own tailors. 
The tailor in Damascus stands (or rather sits) at the head of 
all the trades of the city ; his bazaar is the favourite lounge, 
where, as in the London coffee-houses of former times, the idle 
or the inquisitive resort to learn the news of the day. Hung 
round with furs and cloaks, shirts, tunics, and flowing robes 
of all descriptions, as the whore of Babylon is with false 
miracles (see Father IN^ewman), he receives you courteously, 
and communicates freely, what the last caravan from Bagdad, 
or the last firman from Constantinople, has announced. He 
tells you how a bud from the roses of paradise has sprung up 
in the seraglio of the Sultan (peace be upon him!) which 
was welcomed by the salutation of ten thousand cannons ! 
How a rebellious Bashaw has successfully evaded the bow- 
string, and how the villagers in the Hauraun have retired in 
a mass to avoid the exaction of the capitation tax. The 
tailor is a gentleman-tradesman, and plies his nimble 
weapon with great dexterity, furnished with good English 
thread, not using the sinews of oxen, as Hesiod informs us 
the ancient Greeks did (Opera et Dies, i. 544). Dress- 
making, tailoring, and, indeed, manual labour in general, is 
about a third cheaper than in England. 

YI. Dress, taken in the widest sense, may be fairly con- 
sidered as a distinguishing characteristic of the human species. 
It presupposes reason and forethought. Man is more helpless 
than other animals, and longer helpless, both in infancy and 
old age ; he is weaker, tenderer, and more dependent on the 
assistance of others than the lower animals, and nature, 
denying him the strength and defences of many others, 



GARMENTS TYPICAL. 



149 



has given liira reason, and placed him in circumstances where 
it must be exercised and developed. He must form the weapon 
which assists the hand, and weave the garments which defend 
the body from the cold. Hence clothing becomes associated 
with many of the noblest traits of the human soul, as well as 
the emblem and image of its civil and social developments. 
Shame, modesty, and purity of mind are among these 
characteristics, and that cannot be of trifling significance 
which represents such noble qualities. We may observe that 
in the East the dress remains nearly the same as it was in the 
days of Abraham. It shares the general fixedness of Oriental 
customs, so that, in describing the garments of the present 
generation, we are borne back into remote antiquity, in which 
the venerable forms of prophets, apostles, and martyrs, saints, 
warriors, and kings, rise up before our eyes. 

YII. Garments typical; colours. 1. White is the colom* of 
purity in all nations. The angels appeared to men in white 
robes. Acts i. 10 ; Mat. xxviii. S ; Mark xvi. 5 ; Luke xxiv. 4 ; 
John XX. 12. The forgiven sinner is symbolised by the white- 
ness of snow. Is. i. 18. "Let thy garments be always white' ^ 
(Eccl. ix. 8, 9), means let your character be serene and pure. 
This explains the prayer or imprecation so common in the 
East, " May Grod blacken his face ! " " He of the white face" 
is a designation of Mohammed, and the same custom is traced 
in the Irish expression of praise, " "White headed boy," or 

white boy." On seasons of joy and public festivity, tuhite 
robes were worn by the Jews, Eccl. ix. 8 ; Is. iii. 1 ; Ixi. 10 ; 
Hev. iii. ; and hence the season of the advent, the great jubilee 
of the creation, is ushered in by the presence of the king on a 
white horse (the symbol of righteous judgment, Hev. xix. 11 ; 
vi. 2 ; Zech. vi. 3, &c.), followed by the heavenly armies clothed 
in fine linen, white and clean. He v. xix. 11, 15. The white 
^ss (jmn^ /TIJDKj bright shining she-asses, Jud. v. 10) 



150 



COLOUR OF DRESS SYMBOLIC. 



was the symbol of the judge so early as the days of the Judges : 
ch. X. 4, xii. 14. History tells us that the sect of the Essenes 
wore white robes, and the great Kiag of Israel gave to the 
sacrificing priests, whose office was to minister before him, 
white garments as s^Tnbols of priestly puiity (Ex. xxviii. 2, 40 ; 
Ley. xvi. 4) ; at least the white is supposed to have prevailed 
among the gorgeous colonics which were imited in the priestly 
robes. The toga, the s}Tnbol of the Eoman people, and the 
di^ess which distinguished them from other nations, was white, 
and on festivals and joyous occasions they wore white robes 
(Hor. Sat. ii. 61. Per. Sat. ii. 40). The priests of Ceres 
sacrificed in icJiite garments (Potter, 227) ; those who sacrificed 
to the infernal gods wore black ; those who sacrificed to the 
celestial, purple. The only passage in the Bible which invests 
Grod the Father with hiunan form is Dan. vii. 9, 10 ; and 
" his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like 
the pure wool, and his wheels as buiming fire." Jesus, in his 
transfiguration upon Mount Tabor, was invested with raiment 
of snoicy brightness. Matt. xvii. 2. The profession of the 
Christian is represented as a habit of stainless pmity, which, 
in the midst of all defilement, the followers of Christ were to 
keep clean, and hence the recipients of baptism were clothed 
in ichite, and called candidates or white ones. The Popish 
church preserves the custom to the present time, as I witnessed 
at the baptism of some Jews in the cathedral church of Rome. 
I may add, the women in the East are swathed round in a 
white robe from head to foot whenever they appear in the 
streets ; and in the south of Germany, at least in the Rhine 
provinces, it is the custom for all women (not ladies) to wear 
a ichite handkerchief on the head. These facts, customs, and 
allusions, open up to us the meaning of the tchite robes, which 
the Lord has promised his saints, and which the Redeemer 
has washed and made white in his own precious blood. The 



BLACK GARMENT. 



151 



filtliy garments are removed, Zecli. iii. 3 — 5 ; and a royal 
wedding robe of stainless purity, tlie seamless robe of Christ's 
righteousness, is given to invest the trembling sinner in the 
presence of the all seeing Grod. 

" Jesus, thy blood and righteousness 
My beauty is, and glorious dress." 

2. Black is the colour of mourning. Hence the Jews wear 
black turbans as the symbols of their homeless persecuted con- 
dition — tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast." 
The black heavens in Scripture (Rev. vi. 12) denote the fear- 
ful wrath and indignation of Grod. Black sackcloth garments 
were worn by mourners among the Jews (Gen. xxxvii. 34 ; 
2 Kings vi. 30 ; Ps. xxx. 11 ; Is. xx. 2), as we go into mourn- 
ing when our relations die. Sackcloth was worn by the 
prophets to distinguish them from the luxurious and profligate 
against whom their messages were to be directed, and hence 
the false prophets afiected the same earnest modes of living, 
and wore rough garments to deceive, Zech. xiii. 4. This is the 
basis of all the Scripture allusions to the cloudy skies, and the 
heavens gathering blackness as indications of the anger of the 
Lord ; compare Is. i. 3 ; Jude 13. Joel represents the faces 
of terrified multitudes gathering blackness ; and the fearful 
doom and destiny of those who deny the Lord that bought 
them is "the blackness of darkness for ever,'' Jude 13. Burns' 
fearful imprecation against Satan himself, in his celebrated 

Address to the De'il," is "Black be your fa'!" And the 
expression. Sic niger est, "This is a black fellow," among the 
Romans, denoted a dangerous disagreeable person, to be 
avoided like a furious bull. The prayer of Kumeil for the 
tyrant Hejaj, was to the following efiect — " The Lord blacken 
his face ; may his neck be cut off and his blood shed" (Ockley's 
Saracens, 495). Our language, less metaphorical, permits us 



152 GREEN, BLUE, PURPLE GARMENTS. 

only to hlackhall (like tlie Athenians) our friends, and blacken 
the character of our enemies. We learn from Menander, as 
quoted by Porphyry, that the Phoenicians, in times of calamity, 
humbled themselves like the JN^ineyites, putting on sackcloth, 
and sitting on the dunghill, (De Abstinentia, iv. 15.) Black is, 
therefore, rarely worn in the East, but a fine large jet hlaclz 
beard is highly honoured, and the Arab, like the English 
poets, admire ''the light of a dark eye in woman;" and, if we 
believe the Koran, the large hlack eyes (like the ox-eyes of 
Juno, which we learned to love from Homer) form one of the 
special qualifications of the girls of paradise. 

3. Green is the colour sacred to the prophet of Islam, and 
is consequently held in the greatest veneration. Only the 
descendants of Mohammed are allowed to wear the green 
turban ; the standard erected before the imperial armies is 
green, and in the household and personal decorations of the 
modern Moslems, it occupies a conspicuous place. The first 
and last chapters of the Koran are often ornamented with 
green, blue, and purple ; and green silk handkerchiefs and 
dresses for the ladies are very common in Damascus. 

4. Blue is very common in Syria, especially among the lower 
orders of the Arabs. It was highly esteemed in Persia, and 
formed one of the colours with which the imperial court and 
palace were decorated, Esth. i. 5, 6. The Assyrians were clothed 
with hliie^ Ezek. xxiii. 6, and Mordecai went from the presence 
of the king in royal apparel of hlue and white, Esth. viii. 15. 
Among the colours which decorated the priestly garments of 
the Jews, blue held a conspicuous place ; the robe of the ephod 
was entirely of it, Ex. xxviii. 31, 34; and blue, purple, and 
scarlet are repeatedly mentioned in connection with the orna- 
ments of the temple and the ministrations of the priests. . 

5. Purple is indeed the Roman imperial colour, and sustains 
to this hour its place as the noblest and most beautiful of 



PURPLE AS A SYMBOL. 



153 



colours, both in tlie East and the West. Purpura, the 
of the Hebrews, is a shell-fish, found on the shores of the 
Mediterranean sea, from which, according to Pliny (ISTat. 
Hist. ix. 36), the Tyrians press out the purple fluid by taking 
off" the shells of the larger ones, and breaking the smaller ones 
in oliye-presses. This exquisite and costly dye could be used 
only by the rich, and in the Poman empire it became so 
associated with magistracy and rule, that to assume the purple 
was the common designation for ascending the imperial 
throne. Hence the incredible degradation and diabolical 
scorn of the mock coronation of the adorable Pedeemer of the 
world! They put on him l/uLariov 7rop(l)vpovu, Si jnirj^le robe, 
John xix. 2 ; or, according to Matt, xxvii. 28, ^Xa/uivSa 
KOKKLvr]u, a scarlet cloak. The chlamys was worn by officers, and 
corresponds probably with the paludamentum of the Pomans, 
and Josephus says (Ant. 5, 1.10) that it was sometimes worn by 
kings. The Evangelists u^q purple and scarlet indiscriminately, 
as is commonly done by ourselves ; and the Pomans did the 
same thing, for Horace (Sat. ii. 6, 102) uses the expression, 
Riihro ibi cocco tincta super lectos conderet vestis eburnos, and 
yet immediately after interchanges this red scarlet with purple : 
Ergo vibi purpurea porrectum in veste locavit. They are indeed 
shades of the same colour, and easily blend into one another. 
Both words are applied to the apostate and imperial harlot, 
who commits fornication with the kings of the earth, and, 
drunken with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus, 
scatters from the throne of her adulterous infallibility rescripts 
and mandates to the nations of the earth, Pev. xvii. 5. The 
false prophet assumed the rough garment to deceive. The 
pope and the cardinals are clothed in scarlet, and all their 
decorations partake of the gaudiest and most seductive colours. 
In JN^orth Germany, and in Hamburgh especially, the fact is 
notorious that the houses of public infamy are decorated with 



154 



PREVAILING COLOURS. 



red scarlet hangings, sofas, and window blinds; the high, 
patten and the red heel are signs of the prostitute in Hindostan, 
and thus the observation holds good that literal and spiritual 
fornication array themselves in the same seductive habiliments, 
and indeed naturally run into one another. 

6. What colour prevails in the dress of the inhabitants of 
Damascus ? It is hard to say. Perhaps blue is the ruling 
tint ; but all bright colours, blue, purple, and scarlet, pink, 
orange, and yellow, are worn by all classes, and by men and 
women equally. We appropriate to the ladies all the bright 
gaudy colours, and are content with the sober tints of blue, 
grey, black, or brown. In the East this is not so ; the gentle- 
men wear also dresses of purple and scarlet, pink, orange, and 
blue ; they wear, in common with the ladies, silk, satin, and 
crape, embroidered muslin, and cloth of gold. The ladies are 
married in rose-coloured habits, and the Jewess, from the 
marriage day, uses feathers or false hair. All colours, all 
cloths, aU fashions, and in all conceivable varieties, meet and 
mingle in the streets of the holy city of Damascus. Among 
the young Christians the fez-cap prevails, and ogives the 
streets of their quarter the appearance of a fair in the south 
of Ireland, where every woman wears a red mantle. 

yill. Where garments are worn at all, it seems necessary 
there should be an inner and an outer one. This is, in point 
of fact, the case in most of the Oriental nations, where luxury 
and art have not altered the simple habits of the natives. 
This seems alluded to in Is. xlv. 24 : " Surely one will say. In 
the Lord have I righteousness and strength.'' The word 
righteousness in the Hebrew is plural — righteousnesses JllpliJ 
and it is not less remarkable that the apostle John, in his fine 
description of the bride, the Lamb's wife, uses the same form 
of expression, " The fine linen is (ra ^LKaidj/dara rwv ayiiov) 
the righteousnesses of the saints,'' Eev. xix. 8. Thus there is a 



DRESS OF THE FEET. 



155 



twofold righteousness whicli belongs to tlie saints, an inner 
and an outer robe of rigbteousness. The bride is adorned 
with the wedding robe of Christ's glorious righteousness, the 
merits of his active and passive work — his doing and dying 
for her sake. This is her beauty and defence, her refuge and 
fortress in the evil days. But she is also, as the king's 
daughter (Ps. xlv. 13), all glorious within, adorned with the 
fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit of God. She is no whited 
sepulchre ; the inner and the outer garments correspond ; 
and if the work of Christ be her justification before the law 
of God, the work of the Spirit in her makes her worthy of 
the royal bridegroom, and qualifies her for the enjojrments of 
His house. 

B. — The various parts of dress described as at present worn 
in Damascus. We leave now the general difierences between 
the East and the West in respect of clothing, and address 
ourselves to the particular parts. We begin with 

I. The Feet. 

1. The foot dress of a Damascus gentleman consists of three 
parts — the stocking or socks, the shoe, and the slipper. The 
socks are of white cotton, EngKsh manufacture, and are 
generally worn in the winter season only. The shoe or 
the boot (which might be more properly called a foot-glove) 
is of sheepskin, untanned, soft and flexible, with the sole, 
heel, and instep all of the same consistence. This is drawn 
on over the white cotton sock, and then inserted into the 
slipper, which is of two kinds. One kind of slipper you 
find in. bazaars ready made, and is simply a shoe ivithout a 
heel. The other kind you make yourselves, by simply turning 
down the heel. Both kinds are made of Morocco or tanned 
leather, and have good stout endurable soles, but they do not 



156 



SLIPPERS, SANDALS. 



keep out tlie water, nor are they intended to do so. Tlie 
foot-dress of a lady is exactly the same as that of a gentleman? 
except that the gentleman's slipper is red, and the lady's 
yellow. In both cases the socks are white, and the foot-gloves 
yellow. It is the slipper which is taken off when you enter a 
house ; and certainly the Damascus mode of entering a room 
with perfectly clean foot- gloves, which leave no stain on the 
" Indian mats and Persian carpets, which it makes the heart 
bleed to tread on," and without the least noise, is much more 
elegant than our Western custom. This is the fuU dress, 
but you are not to suppose that even the wealth}^ use it at 
all times. The highest civic magistrate visited me in Da- 
mascus in the heat of summer, without either stockings or 
foot-gloves. He laid off his slippers at the door, and ascended 
the mat wth the bare feet : and this is the habit of the 
common people of both sexes, throughout the j^ear. If they 
have to walk only a little distance they use them as slippers, 
if they make a journey on foot thej lift up the heel. In 
many parts of the East these slippers cover only a little part 
of the front of the foot, and the stranger is astonished to see 
them sticldng so tenaciously upon the toes. Among the 
nobles and princely families of the East, these slippers are 
often highly ornamented with crescents, stars, and flowers 
done in embroidery of gold or silver. (Song vii. 1,2.) Sandals 
are not much used at present in Syria, but in India they are still 
common, and in many parts of that great and diversified 
countrj^, they are kept attached to the soles of the feet by a 
large headed peg, inserted between the first and second toe of 
the foot ; in other places, they are strapped on with cords or 
thongs. It was so among the Jews; their legs were bare, 
and their feet defended from the inequalities of the road by 
sandals of wood or bark (the French wear wooden shoes in 
the 19th century), and the office of the humble menial 



PUTTING OFF THE FASHION. 



157 



servant was to loose the straps that bound them to the feet, 
which humble office explains the relation in which John the 
Baptist, the greatest of the prophets (Matt. xi. 2, and Luke 
vii. 28), conceived himself to stand to the Great Deliverer, 
for whose coming he was sent to prepare the way, Mark i. 7. 

2. The shoes differed from the sandal, in being more deK- 
cate and luxurious, and were consequently worn generally by 
the upper classes of society. vTroSrifxa, 'Svhat is bound under 
the foot," seems originally to have signified the same as 
sandals, but, in after ages, and in the ISTew Testament it 
denotes shoes. Schleusner argues, that v7ro^r}f.ia and (ravSaXioi^^ 
shoe and sandal, are in the JSTew Testament one and the same 
thing, because in the LXX. the Hebrew b^} is sometimes 
rendered shoe, and at other times sandal. This conclusion is 
incorrect. The Saviour forbids the disciples in their journeys 
to wear shoes vTroBrjjuaTa (Matt. x. 10), the symbols of luxury 
and Sadducean effeminacy ; but he allows them the use of 
the sandal, cravdaXia, the common and necessary safeguard 
for the feet (Mark vi. 9). The joyous father gives the restored 
prodigal shoes, viro^riiJaTa, (Luke xv. 22) ; but the persecuted 
and imprisoned apostle wore sandals (Acts xii. 8). 

3. The custom of taking off the shoes or sandals on entering a 
house or a church is universal, and has existed from the time 
of Abraham, and Moses put off his sandals in the presence of 
the Lord (Ex. iii. 5) ; that there might be nothing between 
mortal man and the dust of the earth, when he appears before 
the Holy One. In the pontifical dress of the Old Testament 
there was no covering assigned to the hands and the feet, 
and, consequently, the priests ministered in the temple 
barefooted, and without gloves ; while they deemed it impious, 
as the Jews still do, to appear before Grod with the head 
uncovered (Ex. iii. 61 ; 1 Kings xix. 13) ; wishing to imitate 
the angels in glory, who, in the presence of the lofty One, 



158 



THE SHOE AS A SYMBOL. 



cover tlieir faces with, their wings (Is. yi. 2, 3). To remain 
bareheaded is a sign of confidence and familiarity, as with 
us to keep the hat on in the presence of a superior is a token 
of abhorrence and contempt. The Romans performed their 
religious rites with the head covered, (^n. iii. 403, 543, &c.) 
The only mosque I was ever in, is the old Christian church in 
Sychar, which in virtue of a Bakshish to the janizars of the 
governor, I was allowed to enter and examine without taking 
off m}^ shoes : — Onmia vincit aurum ; at Rome, at Athens, 
and at Constantinople, Jupiter (at Rome the Jew-Peter), can 
make his way into all sanctuaries in a shower of gold. I saw 
Dr. Abbaken, of Berlin, walk through the great and holy 
mosque of Damascus, and waited every moment to see him 
massacred ; he was, however, in the Oriental costume, and no 
man recognised the presence of a Christian in the holy place. 
The customs connected with the shoe and the foot in the East 
are very various. 1st. To unbind the sandal, denotes slavery, 
or an humble condition (Mark i. 7). 2nd. To unbind the shoe, 
was in some cases among the Jews the token of contempt and 
abandonment (Deut. xxv. 10). 3rd. The handing a shoe to 
another was the ancient method of ratifying the covenants 
between merchants and exchangers (Ruth iv. 7). 4th. To go 
barefooted was a sign of deep mourning (2 Sam. xv. 30. 
Is. XX. 2. Ezek. xxiv. 17). 5th. The speaking with the feet 
(Prov. vi. 13), refers to the base practices, gestures, and 
movements of the debaucbees, in the time of Solomon, and is 
practised abundantly by the dancing girls and others in the 
East stiU, and was freely known and described by the ancient 
Romans (Ovid, Amor, lib. i. El. iv. 15). 6th. To throw the 
shoe over a country denotes subjection and conquest (Ps. Ix. 
8). The foot, indeed, among the ancients, seems to be the 
symbol of shame, inferiority, or slavery, as the origin of the 
word and the family circle to which it belongs clearly indi- 



DRESS OF THE LOINS. 



159 



cate. (potli) signifies shame, and U}^^ (push) to multiply, 
from which the Greek tteoc, and hence iraog a relative, iraig a 
boy, and ttovq a foot, and hence the pes, fuss, foot, &c., of 
modern languages. The Greeks caU a slave, av^poTrt^ov, a foot- 
man. This, as compared with the head, the noblest part of man, 
throws some light on Gen. iii. 15. 7th. Providing water for 
the feet, and even tvashing them, is still a part of Oriental 
kindness and hospitality. This is necessary in the East, 
whether you wear shoes or sandals, or go like the Fakirs, 
barefooted, and nothing is more grateful, after the dust of 
the desert, and the scorching heat of the Syrian sun. The 
custom existed from the days of Abraham (Gen. xviii. 4), 
was practised by our blessed Lord, as a token of profoundest 
love and humility (John xiii. 4 — 16), and among the early 
Christians, who were often subject to the most fearful perse- 
cutions, was the symbol of that Christian love, which orna- 
ments all, but which crowns most becomingly, the character 
of woman (1 Tim. v. 10. Compare Gen. xviii. 4; xix. 2. 
Luke vii. 38, 44. John xiii. 5 — 14). 8th. It is customary 
among the Jews everywhere, and among the Orientals in 
general, to heat each other with the shoes. A friend of mine 
saw an old J ew in Rome, take off his shoe and fling it violently 
after his disobedient son. In Damascus it is common among 
Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans, though I do not recol- 
lect an example of it in the Bible. I saw my servant Helena 
take off her high wooden winter kabab (patten), and break it 
to shivers on the skull of an Albanian soldier, who seemed 
certainly to think it a formidable weapon. 



II. The Loins. 



1. The trousers, breeches, pantaloons, sherwal or lebas, 
assume different forms in different nations and ages. The 



160 TROUSERS, BREECHES, PAifTALOONS. 

origin of this decent garment, J enning tliinks, may be fairly 
traced to tlie institution of the Jewish priesthood (Ex. xxviii. 
42) ; but this does not prove that the nation in general used 
it ; on the*contrary, a multitude of incidents and facts in their 
history shew clearly they did not. It existed not in the 
days of 'Nosih (Gen. ix. 21). Even in the time of David it 
was not worn by his servants and ambassadors, as is evident 
from the barbarous and insulting conduct of the Ammonites 
(2 Sam. X. 3, 4). The Romans wore neither stockings nor 
breeches ; they were distinguished, it appears, as the gens to- 
gata, or gown- wearing, from the Teutonic race, who were the 
gens braccata, or the breeches- wearing nation. Julius Caesar, 
in dying, covered the lower parts of the body with his toga, 
that he might fall decently (Suet. Yitse, Ixxxii.) ; and Mar- 
tial's description of the sacrificing priests (Lib. iii. 24) takes 
for granted the absence of everything of the kind. The 
Divine law against the immodest woman (Deut. xxv. 11), 
shews clearly that breeches were not in common use. The 
Greeks, Romans, and the Oriental nations used the shirt and 
the flowing robes, which seemed to suit their climates ; 
while the Gauls, Scythians, and the northern nations in 
general, were distinguished by the use of breeches. Our 
pantaloon is from Yenice, and means, plant the lion, viz., the 
Lion of St. Mark, the standard of the Yenetian common- 
wealth, which the veteran hero brought from the conquered 
capital of the Lower Empire. The soldiers wore this long 
kind of dress, and hence these planters of the lion gave the 
name to the vestments which distinguished them. 

2. The Turkish trousers are worn next the skin, and 
the shirt falls down over them ; they are quite loose and 
wide, allowing the limbs the freeest, fullest liberty of action 
in rising, sitting down, and reclining. They are drawn 
tightly around the body with a running cord, and descend 



THE SHIRT, WAISTCOAT, ROBE, GIRDLE. 161 

to the calf of the leg, or the ankle, according to taste. The 
prophet forbids long pantaloons ; but in this, as in the use 
of wine and silk, his prescriptions are frequently violated. 
These drawers are of cotton, or linen, and worn both by 
men and women. Now comes the shirt (kamees, from 
which our French word chemise), which is simply a full, 
large shirt, with wide sleeves reaching to the wrist. It is 
of cotton or silk, or silk and cotton mixed, or muslin, or 
rich fine crape, according to the taste or wealth of the 
wearer. It is, I believe, always of a white, or whitish 
colour, though it may be, and very often is, various stripes 
and various shades. The waistcoat is much like our own, 
except that for buttons and button-holes, it has buttons and 
loops ; and in the case of children and wealthy persons, it 
is much more ornamented than with us. The vest, in Da- 
mascus, is often glittering with gold and silver, and exhibits 
in perfection the taste and ingenuity of the tailor and em- 
broiderer. Over this the common people have a jacket, like 
that of our sailors, which, with the girdle, completes their 
dress. But the respectable classes universally wear a long 
flowing robe, or go^vn, reaching down to the feet, and having 
loose sleeves, somewhat longer than the tips of the fingers, 
but divided from below the elbow, so that the arm and hand 
can be covered or exposed at pleasure. These flowing robes 
may be of any, or all kinds of stufi" — any, or all the colours 
of the rainbow. 

1. The girdle; the zinnar of the Orientals, the zone of 
the Greeks and Homans, is a very important part of the 
dress. It is worn by all classes, rich and poor, young and 
old, men and women, before marriage and after marriage, 
though sometimes it is taken off" in the house for ease and 
indulgence. This was more generally the case with the 
ancient Jews, who seem to have used the girdle mainly when 

M 



162 



MATERIALS OF THE GIRDLE. 



on journeys, or engaged in labour (1 Kings xviii. 46 ; 2 
Kings iv. 29 ; John xiii. 4; Psalm xviii. 39). The Greeks 
and E-omans did the same ; they used (the Romans) neither 
toga nor girdle in their houses, but an imdress, and hence, 
ungirded, was distinctive of domestic retirement (Hor. Sat. 
ii. 1, 73 ; Ovid, Amor. i. 9, 41), in which they neither did 
business nor received company. The girdle was, and is 
necessary for full dress. It is worn under the outer cloak, 
or mantle, and over a long kind of vest, which descends to 
the feet. 

2. The girdles of Syria are sashes, wrapped firmly rou.nd 
the body, and consist of webs of cloth, not unlike the Scotch 
shepherds' plaid. They are of all sizes, all lengths, and all 
prices, from the simple strip of calico to the magnificent 
Cashmere, worth a himdred pounds. They are often of 
leather, especially in India, where the Mahrattas cover the 
leathern girdles with fine velvet, and divide them into 
various compartments, for money, papers, and jewels. In 
Damascus you find leathern girdles ; they are, however, 
never used instead of the sash, but worn next the skin, as 
the safest place to carry their money. The Grreek and Ro- 
man soldiers wore belts of this kind ; and the Baptist, as a 
man from the wilderness, whose appearance and preaching 
were to rebuke the luxury and pride of the nation, had a 
leathern girdle (Matt. iii. 4) ; indeed, it is probable this sort 
of girdle was used by the prophets generally (2 Kings i. 8), 
as in keeping with their coarse garments and their stern, 
uncompromising ofiice. The priestly girdle, on the con- 
trary, was of the richest texture, of various colours, and 
embroidered with gold (Ex. xxviii. 4 — 8) ; and hence the 
great Antitype appears to the seer in Patmos girt about 
with a golden girdle, the emblem of his unchangeable high- 
priesthood (Rev. i. 13). In times of sorrow the Orientals 



USES OF THE GIRDLE. 



163 



put on mourning, as we do ; and hence you have an easy 
explanation of tlie girding witli sackclotli, as a token of 
deepest sorrow, or a threatening of Divine wrath (Is. iii. 24; 
xxii. 12). The girdle is put on thus: your slave having 
folded it the right breadth, holds it at one end, while you 
take the other, and lay it upon your side, and roll yourself 
round and round, as tight as possible, till you arrive at the 
slave, who remains immoveable. If you have no slaves, a 
hook, or the branch of a tree, will answer the same pur- 
pose. 

3. The uses of the girdle are many and various. 1st. It 
answers the same purpose as suspenders, by uniting together 
the different parts of the dress, and binding the whole firmly 
to the body. All above, and all below, is loose and wide, to 
admit an abundant supply of air. 2nd. The Orientals be- 
lieve that it strengthens the body, and to this idea allusion 
seems to be made in the expression, " Gird up thy loins, 
now, like a man." (Job xl. 7.) Here, as in most other 
things, we reverse their custom. We roll our infants in 
rollers, they do not ; they, however, think it necessary to 
put on the girdle shortly after we put it off. 3rd. The 
girdle is used as a purse. I have occasionally carried money 
in this way myself, and the practice seems to have been 
common in ancient times among most nations. In Matt. x. 9, 
and Mark vi. 8 (2wi^»?) zone, is translated purse, and very 
properly, for the apostles carried their money in it, as the 
Orientals do still. The Eomans did the same ; hence, per- 
dere zonam means, to lose your purse — to be plundered (Hor. 
Epist. ii. 2, 40) ; and C. Gracchus, in Gellius, speaks of the 
zonas argenti plenas, girdles fuU of money, which he took 
with him from Rome (Gell. Lib. xv. 12). 4th. The girdle 
is used for carrying the sword, dagger, pistols, yatagans, 
knives, and all sorts of weapons ; and hence the meaning of 

M 2 



164 



GIRDLES AN ACCEPTABLE GIFT. 



the warlike allusions in the following Scriptures : Jud. iii. 16; 
1 Sam. xxT. 13 ; Ps. xlv. 3 ; Is. yiii. 9 ; Deut. i. 41 ; Jud. 
XTiii. 11 ; 1 Kings xx. 11. To gird for the battle is to arm, 
and to loose the girdle is to put off the armour. The G-reeks, 
Latins, Persians, and Turks used, and still use, the same form 
of speech. Aveiv ti]v (^.covrjv. to loose the girdle, when applied 
to a warrior, means to rest — to disarm ; in another applica- 
tion of the word, it means to dewginate. The Latins used 
solvere zonam in the same sense (Catul. 67. 28 ; Orid. Ep. 
ii. 116). oth. The girdle is used as a gift of friendship. 
Little girdles for boys and girls, or military girdles, richly 
ornamented, are highly esteemed as presents in the East. 
I give an example from Gibbon (ix. 228) : — ''^When the eyes 
of my companions fell upon me," says Timour, ^' they were 
overwhelmed with joy, and they alighted from their horses, 
and they came and kneeled and kissed my stii^rup. I, also, 
came down from my horse, and took each of them in my 
aiTas ; and I put my turban on the head of the first chief, 
and my gii^dle, rich in jewels, and wrought with gold, I 
boimd on the loins of the second, and the third I clothed in 
my own coat ; and they wept, and I wept also ; and the hour 
of prayer was arrived, and we prayed ; and we mounted our 
horses, and came to my dwelling ; and I collected my people 
and made a feast." Ajax gave his girdle to Hector f Iliad, 
vii. 306) ; Jonathan gave his to Da^id, as the pledge of his 
perpetual friendship (1 Sam. xviii. 4) ; and Joab would wil- 
lingly have rewarded mui^der with a girdle (2 Sam. xviii. 11). 
6th. In the case of women, the girdle is considered both a 
modest garment and a defence against the dangers of rape 
and seduction. The Grreeks and Pomans were of the same 
opinion, as is evident from their marriage ceremonies. 7th. 
The inlvhorn is carried in the girdle fEzek. ix. 2), and con- 
sists, in Damascus, at least, of a thin, hollow case of brass. 



THE BREAST, SHOULDER, ARMS, AND NECK. 165 

or copper, or silver, highly polished, and of exquisite work- 
manship. It is about nine inches long, nearly two inches 
broad, and about half an inch deep. The hollow shaft con- 
tains the pens, yiz., reeds, halam, and the penknife, and is 
supplied with a lid. The ink vessel is soldered to the upper 
end of the shaft, and is furnished with a lid, which moves 
on a hinge, and is fastened tightly with a clasp. The shaft 
is stuck in the girdle, and the head, containing the ink, pre- 
vents it from falling through between the folds. These are 
the principal uses of the girdle. We may observe, in con- 
clusion, that the manufacture of girdles in the East occupies 
the time and the ingenuity of thousands. The virtuous 
woman now, as in the days of Solomon, ^' Maketh fine Knen, 
and seUeth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant" 
(Prov. xxxi. 24). I^o other article of dress is so ornate ; 
the wealth and ingenuity of the Orientals are exhausted in 
ornamenting it ; and the kings of Persia sometimes gave 
cities and provinces to their wives for the expense of their 
girdles. 

"We come now to mention the customs connected with the 

III. Breast, Shoulder, Arms, and Neck. 

I. I have mentioned already and described the garments 
that cover the body — the pantaloons, the shirt, the waistcoat, 
the long flowing vest with sleeves, the girdle which binds 
it, and the outer cloak, or over-all. The Breast is only the 
covering of the heart, the seat of the afiections, and is, 
therefore, the symbol of all human tenderness and love. 
The Arab poets are full of allusions to the breast and the 
bosom, and the Bible contains many references which deserve 
our consideration. It seems to denote the best part in the 
offerings. Compare Ex. xxix. 26, 27; Lev. vii. 30 ; viii. ^9 ; 



166 



CUSTOMS CONI^ECTED 



X. 14. It is the symbol of fertility and abundance (Job 
xxiv. 9 ; Is. Ik. 16 ; it symbolises the Medo -Persian empire 
(Dan. ii. 32). Leaning on tbe bosom refers to tbe manner of 
reclining in tbe East, especially wben at meals. Smiting the 
breast is a natural sign of sorrow and affliction in all lands, and 
seems to sbow tbe desire of punishing, or taking vengeance. 
To be in the bosom, denotes close and intimate fellowship ; 
compare Johni. 18. So the Son in the bosom of the Father ; 
so the bosom of Abraham means, in communion with him 
(Luke xvi. 22) ; to go into Abraham's bosom is to become 
his intimate friends ; so the "JpTT D'^i^, rj yvvrj ev tu) koXttcj aov 
(Deut. xiii. 6 ; xx^dii. 54, 56 ; compare 2 Sam. xii. 3, 8 ; 
Is. xl. 11). The Latins had the same expression, in sinii re- 
cumbo (Plin. Ep. iv. 22). The bosom of a garment is the 
large folds, which can yery well be used for carrying with, 
like a bag, or pocket. This explains Luke vi. 38 ; Ps. Ixxix. 
12 ; Is. IxY. 6 ; Jer. xxxii. 18. Traces of the same custom 
are found among the Greeks and Pomans (Herodot. yi. 125 ; 
Hor. Sat. ii. 3, 171 ; Liv. xxi. 18). 

II. The Shoulder. It is from its readiness to bear 

burdens, and ^ilD from the old verb ^ill) to carry (as 
u)fxoQ, humerus, from the antiquated otw, to bear), from which 
comes the Arabic ^^-^^ to strike on the shoulders. This 
important member of the body is connected with many 
customs in the East. 

1st. The children are, in the East, carried in three ways — 
in the arms as we do in the West generally — on the side (Is. 
Ix. 4) — and on the shoulder. The mother or nurse swings 
the child astride over the left shoulder generally, and holds 
its left with her right hand, while the child's right hand is 
twined round her neck. In this way the child has a very 
firm seat, a very firm hold, and at the same time the mother 



WITH THE SHOULDER. 



167 



has it by the hand. This explains many Scripture expres- 
sions (Is. xi. 14; xlix. .22). 

2nd. In a country where drawing is unknown and hearing 
the only method of conveyance, the back of the animal and 
the shoulder of the man must be of more importance than 
with us. Hence the hey (the large wooden one already 
described) is laid upon His shoulder, to indicate that He opens 
and shuts as He pleases. He does as He pleases in the house 
of God (Is. xxii. 22) ; hence the government is upon His 
shoulder (Is. ix. 6), as the Head and King over the dominions 
of Grod. He bears the weight of government. 

Queen Elizabeth, in one of her speeches to the Commons, 
concludes with these words — Princes cannot themselves 
look narrowly into all things, upon whose shoulders lieth con- 
tinually the heavy weight of the greatest and most important 
affairs." Jesus is the true TrojOc^VjOoyet'i^r/roc, heir of the im- 
perial purple, and upon His shoulders shall the royal burden 
rest. Pliny used similar language in reference to the Poman 
empire — " Quam abunde expertus esset quam bene humeris 
tuis sederet imperium," when he had abundantly experienced 
how well the empire would sit on your shoulders (Paneg. xv.) ; 
and Herodotus finds on a statue of Sesostris, the inscription : 
Eyw TTqv^^ yjbJpy]V wfxoiai roiai ejllokjl f/crr^o-a/xr^i^, which Beloe 
translates — "I conquered this country by the force of my 
arms;" but literally it is, ^' I obtained this region by my 
shoulders/' which shows that the Greeks associated the same 
symbolical meaning with shoulders which the Hebrews did. 
The yoke of slavery lay upon the shoulders of His people, and 
J esus the conqueror brake their bondage. He is the cross- 
bearer, and He calls upon us to bear with Him the Gospel 
yoke (Matt. xi. 29. Compare Deut. xxvui. 48; Lam. iii. 27). 
The Syrian maidens carry water jars upon the head and upon 
the shoulder, as in the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 



168 



THE ARM. 



(Gen. xxiv. 15, 45). To be of one mind, to serve the Lord 
unanimously, is to serve Him with one shoulder, "THJ*^ DJt£^ 
(Zeph. iii. 9). And the good shepherd seeks the lost sheep, 
and carries it to the fold upon his shoulder (Luke xv. 5). The 
shoulder of a lamb is the favourite joint among the Arabs, as it 
was among the Hebrews (1 Sam. ix. 24). Mr. Ockely states 
(Saracens, 470), that Abdalmelik, the caliph of Damascus, after 
having conquered Cufah, made a great feast to which all comers 
were welcome. When they sat down to supper, Amrou, the 
son of Hareth, an ancient Mechzumian, came in. Abdalmelik 
called to him, and placing him by his side upon the sofa, 
asked him what meat he liked best of all that ever he had 
eaten. The old Mechzumian answered, " An ass's neck well 
seasoned and roasted.'' " You don't know what's good," 
says Abdalmelik. " What say you to a leg or a shoulder of a 
sucking lamb well roasted, and with a sauce of butter and 
milk?" This passage teaches that the inhabitants of Cufah 
supped on donkeys, nor can we blame them — the Romans 
liked puppies, and the French eat frogs — that a roast lamb 
was a great luxury, and that it was dressed with butter and 
milk, as the calf was in the days of Abraham, Gen. xviii. 8. 
I have seen thick sour milk called lehan poured over roast 
mutton, and I can testify that it makes a very delicious 
sauce. 

III. Arm. ^•)-)| (Zeroa) in Arabic ^1)<^ from a root 
which signifies, in the Shemitish languages, to attack, to 
scatter, and which may be traced in the arpotj, strao (sterno) 
strow, strew, &c., of more modern languages. 1st. The arm 
in the East is often bare, the loose sleeve leaving it free and 
unencumbered, and this gives force and emphasis to the 
following Scriptures, Is. lii. 10 ; liii. 1, 2. To reveal the arm 
in stretching it towards a person is acceptance, kindness, and 



TATOOINGS ON THE ARM. 



169 



love ; to make hare the arm is tlie token of vengeance, and 
symbolised the power of Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, in the 
overthrow and destruction of the enemies of Bis Son. His 
arm is bare ! a fearful terrible thought ! and may well lead 
us to the ark of our hiding-place. The German students in 
the University of Bonn, when they go out to fight with the 
sabre, which they often do, have the arms bare, that the 
flexors and extensors may be unimpeded in their movements. 
And the poet, describing the siege of Corinth, distinguishes 
the leader of the storming multitude by the hare arm — 

" Their leader's nervous arm is bare, 
Speedy to smite and never to spare, 
Where'er that nervous arm is seen, 
The bravest be or late have been !" 

2nd. But see, here is Abu Mausur, our Christian servant ; 
he has the tatooings on his arms and his breast, which he 
received from the monks of Jeriisalem. This practice is 
nearly universal. Some name, some monkish device, some 
flower as an emblem of spiritual things, or the cross, or the 
figure of the Virgin Mary, is wrought indelibly into the skin, 
by puncturing it and then rubbing it with a blue coloured 
dye. These marks remain as long as life, and are highly 
esteemed by those who have them, and envied by those who 
have not. There is no land of heathenism, where historic 
records exist, in which we cannot find traces of the same 
superstitions. The various castes of the Hindoos have their 
sectarian marks tatooed into the skin to distinguish them 
from their neighbours. The priests of Baal, upon Mount 
Carmel, shouted vehemently and cut themselves with stones, 
1 Kings xviii. 28 (see Grotius), till the blood gushed out. 
In India the scenes of Carmel are transacted daily before the 
eyes of our missionaries. In the Missionary Herald," page 



170 



SUPERSTITIOUS PRACTICES. 



1005, there is a communication from tlie Eev. James Wal- 
lace, to tlie Eev. Dr. Morgan, Belfast, to the following effect: 
" As the day advanced, immense crowds came flocking to the 
place ; in the evening there were not less, I think, than ten 
or twelve thousand people assembled. 'No one thought of 
going to sleep. As soon as it was dark they formed them- 
selves into groups, some holding a flambeau, while some beat 
a drum, in the expectation that the goddess Matha would 
enter some of the party. In a short time a man advanced 
into the centre of the group, pretending that the goddess 
had entered him; and pulling off his turban, and tossing his 
long hair over his face, began to leap and shake, uttering a 
noise occasionally something like the bark of a dog. As his 
excitement increased he beat himself with a chain (like the 
Papists), and made incisions in his tongue with a sword. 
Having then taken the blood which he had drawn, he rubbed 
it upon the foreheads of the spectators. By-and-bye the 
infection appeared to spread, and others pretended to be in 
like manner possessed by Matha, so that in a short time 
every party had three or four of the possessed. These poor 
infatuated men continued to leap and shake the whole night." 
Elissa, the sister of the love- sick queen Dido, is represented 
by Yirgil (^n. iv. 672) as "tearing her face with her nails, 
and beating her breasts with her fists." 

" Unguibus ora soror foedans et pectora pugnis." 

This heathenish sectarian practice was adopted on a large 
scale, and with little variation, by the scandalous harlot, who 
sells her favours to the kings of the earth, and pretends all 
the while that she is the chaste bride of Christ (Rev. xiii. 
16, 17 ; XV. 2 ; xvi. 2 ; xix. 20 ; xx. 4.) The Greeks inarked 
their slaves with brands, Gny/uLara, in order 1^ secure their 
property ; and in the Birman empire the servants have often 



ORNAMENTS FOR THE ARMS. 



171 



their distinguisliiiig stigma. The devotees wlio visit tlie holy 
city and the sepulchre of Christ, get themselves tatooed in 
the arms and the breast ; and the great mother and mistress 
of all abominations has her name written on her forehead 
(Rev. xvii. 5). These practices explain to ns the GTiy^ara 
Tov Kvpiov Irjaov (Gal. vi. 17), in which the apostle gloried. 
They were no self-imposed flagellations, like those of the 
heathens and monks of Rome — ^no cuttings and brandings of 
the body, like those of the priests of Baal and the devotees 
of Hindostan ; but the scars which he received in the ministry 
of the Lord Jesus, for whom he suffered the loss of all things, 
and in whose service life itself was not deemed too great a 
sacrifice (2 Cor. xi. 26). The heathenish practice of cutting 
the flesh was repeatedly forbidden in the Old Testament 
Lev. xix. 28 ; xxi. 5; Deut. xiv. 1, 2; Jer. xvi. 6; xlviii. 37) ; 
and the beautiful principle of the law is given (1 Thes. iv. 13). 
Everything is included in that assurance: ''Thy brother shall 
rise again." 

3rd. The Orientals use ornaments for the arms ; the ladies 
especially are fond of bracelets, or armlets, which encircle 
the wrist and set off to great advantage the small delicate 
hand. They are of gold and silver, and mother-of-pearl, 
among the rich ; ampng the poor they are of less valuable 
materials ; but few maidens in Syria are to be found without 
bracelets of some kind. This custom also brings you at 
once to Bible scenes and Bible manners (Gen. xxiv. 30 ; 
xxxviii. 18; 2 Sam. i. 10; Is. iii. 9; Ezek. xvi. 11 ; Cant, 
vi. 8). We may learn from Gen. xxiv. 33, that Isaac was 
possessed of great wealth, and that Rebecca was treated with 
princely munificence; and this very probably had some influ- 
ence in determining her choice (Gen. xxiv. 58). 



172 



SYMBOLIC USE OF THE HAXD. 



lY. The Ka^^b. 

1st. Tlie hand, being the instrument of action, is used 
by the Orientals in a wide sense, as implying agency, power, 
and instrumentality of every kind, exactly as we find it 
used in the Scriptures (Ex. iv. 21; Ley. v. 7; 1 Sam. ix. 8; 
2 Sam. xiv. 19 ; Estb. ii. 3). It is applied uniyersally to the 
fore-legs of all quadrupeds, so tbat in Damascus we speak of 
the bands of tbe dog, tbe borse, and tbe lion (Ps. xlix. 15 ; 
Dan. vi. 27 ; 1 Sam. xvii. 37). I never beard anotber term 
applied to tbe fore-feet of quadrupeds all tbe time I was in 
tbe East. 

2nd. Kissing the hand is common. My teacber kissed my 
hand, tbe young men and young women kiss tbe bands of 
tbe priests wben tbey meet tbem in company, and wben tbe 
object of tbeir respect is not ap^Droacbable or removes bis 
hand, they kiss their own instead of it. In like manner the 
ancient worshippers of Baal and Astarte kissed the hand in 
token of adoration (cid-ora-tion) . (Job xxx. 26, 27.) So the 
Greeks kissed the image of Bacchus till his brazen chin was 
worn entirely away. The Russians in many places kiss the 
pictures of their favourite saints, and I can testify to the fact 
that the toe of St. Peter's image in Pome is rubbed off by 
Papistical osculation. The Moslems use theii" hands in their 
most solemn acts of worship much in the way the Papists do, 
though not in making the sign of the cross. Being washed 
according to the ritual, which prescribes a form of words for 
each part of the body, to be repeated during the washing, the 
worshipper commences his ejaculations and prayers by raising 
his hands to the sides of his head and touching the lobes of 
his ears with the ends of his thumbs. The Oriental kiss of 
salutation is not given upon the lips, but upon the cheeks and 
the forehead. They kiss, indeed, the di^ess and all parts of 



MODES OF SWEARING. 



173 



tlie body on some occasions. A Jewisli Eabbi on one occasion 
kissed my boot. 

3rd. The Arabs lay tbe hand on wbat they swear by. An 
old sbeiMi said to me one day, " Can you, sir, repeat tbe 
Mohammedan creed?" I immediately repeated in Arabic, 
There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the apostle of 
God." He instantly rose to take his leaye, laj^big his hand 
on his beard, and swearing, "By the life of my beard, you are 
a true believer, I am going to the pasha to get you enrolled.'' 
He was a humorous old man, and wished to frighten me. 
He then laid his hand on the Koran, and swore by it to the 
same effect. This is the way the Moslems administer oaths 
generally in their disputes and lawsuits. The right hand is 
laid upon the Koran, and he swears by the great God, and by 
the contents of this book, which he repeats three times. This 
is as rational as our 'kissing the book. The early Jews put the 
hand under the thigh, in taking an oath (Gen. xxiv. 2 ; xlvii. 
29). This practice referred to the solemn covenant of circum- 
cision, by which the nation was separated from all others, unto 
the service and fellowship of the one living and true God ; 
it recognised the national hope of abundant fruitfulness, and 
that, through Abraham's seed, all kindreds of the earth 
should be blessed. There were, however, other modes of 
taking an oath among the Jews, equally solemn and binding 
(Lev. xxiv. 14). This laying the hands on the head of the 
blasphemer, must have been very solemn and impressive. 
Lifting up the hand to heaven, seems to have been the common 
custom among the Jews, as it seems to be a very natural mode of 
appealing to the Deity (Gen. xiv. 22), and it is confirmed by 
God himseK in the Old Testament (Deut. xxxiii. 40), and by« 
the angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the I^"ew 
(Rev. X. 5). Joining hand in hand is a kind of oath, or, at 
least, of federation and agreement still common in the East, 



174 



STRIKING WITH THE HAND. 



as it was in tlie days of Job (Prov. xi. 21). Thus, in all cases, 
the substance of the oath is an appeal to the all- seeing and 
heart- searching judge and rewarder; and the symbolical, 
flexible part, is the action of the hand in some form or other. 
It is nothing but a very solemn act of religious worship, and 
the lifting up the hands in prayer was and is common among 
all nations. The Jews did so (Job xi. 13; Ps. Ixxxviii. 9; 
cxKii. 6 ; 1 Kings yiii. 22 ; 2 Chron. yi. 12, 13 ; Ps. Ixiii. 4 ; 
Is. i. 15). The Greeks did so (Iliad, i. 450 ; iii. 318 ; vi. 257). 
The Eomans did so (^n. i. 95 ; iv. 205; ix. 16; x. 667.) 
Manus ad sidera tendere, denotes adoration among the Latins, 
as it did among the Jews (Gren. xiv. 22). Latinus (-^n. xii. 
196), swears, looking up to heayen, and stretching his right 
hand towards the stars, Suscipiens coelum, tenditque ad 
sidera dextram. It was the custom among the heathen, 
that those who swore, or supplicated, or ofiered up sacrifice, 
should lay their hands on the altars or images of the gods 
(^n. xii. 201 ; iy. 219) ; from which we haye receiyed the 
practice of hissing, and the Moslems, that of laying the hand 
on the sacred books. The king of men, in swearing, lifted 
up his sceptre to all the gods, to (jKYjirrpou av^Gyj^Be iraai 
Oeoicjiv (II. yii. 412). The gods of the heathen are repre- 
sented as swearing in the same manner (Park. Heb. Lex. 
Article 1^). 

The Indians, in solemn oaths, point to the clouds, to the 
earth, to the grass, to the herbs, to the trees, as witnesses to 
the truth of what they haye said ; 0, ye clouds aboye ; 
haye I not said the truth ? Ah ! well ye know it ; speak 
to this unbelieyer. Ah ! these trees can bear testimony to 
^my yeracity." Comp. Deut. xxx. 19; and Gen. xxxi. 48 ; Jos. 
xxii. 27. 

4th. Striking with the Sand. In the East this is rare ; boxiag 
is utterly unknown; the Arabs haye no word for fist; they 



GLOVES NOT USED. 



175 



do not, like tlie Irisli, carry shillelalis, and swords, daggers, 
and pistols are too dangerous weapons to be often used. I 
once saw a little specimen of a row in Damascus, and to me, 
wlio liad seen them often in Ireland, in all their fervour and 
magnitude, it seemed very ridiculous. They smote each 
other with the palms of the hand ; and this reminded me of 
the cruelties and indignities endured by the Lord Jesus Christ 
(Matt. xxvi. 67). This custom would seem to favour the 
translation of pairiloj given in the text — when striking with 
a reed is mentioned, rvirrw is used (Matt. xxvi. 30). Striking 
hands is often mentioned in Scripture, but this means to 
confederate (Prov. vi, 1 ; 2 Kings x. 15 ; Prov. xi. 15; D"'^p1J1 
hand-strikers). The Arabs, in all regions and of all tribes, 
use the same form of confirming friendship ; and I may add, 
all nations have struck upon the same natural action for 
shewing " due respect to Sir or Madam, in every age since 
father Adam" (11. ii. 340; ^n. iv. 597). The custom is 
universal. 

5th. The Orientals use no gloves. In many parts both the 
hands and feet, or at least the hands and the legs, are quite 
bare, and '^this habit contributes exceedingly to the comfort 
and health of the body in hot climates. They eat with their 
fingers everything save fluids, which require spoons, and 
thus dispense with the modern luxury of knives and forks. 
They eat at the present hour, as Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, and all the old fathers, apostles, and prophets did eat. 
Here, you feel yourself in the olden time, and primitive 
nature resumes her ancient sceptre. Behold these shepherds, 
the staff and the rod, the sheep following them, the shepherds 
calling the sheep by name (John x. 3 — 5) ; the sheep dis- 
tinguishing their own shepherd's voice, and refusing to follow 
a stranger ; the maiden at the well (Gen. xxix. 9), as in the 
ancient time, and confess that you are in the midst of Bible 



176 



THE HAND IN SALUTATION. 



scenes. Or, if it please thee more to see tlie ancient goad, 
wHcli proved such a formidable weapon in the hands of 
Shamgar (Jud. iii. 31), you have only to go into one of 
these Damascus gardens, where the ploughman with his 
oxen, or cows, or donkeys (never horses), presents you with 
another equally interesting Bible picture. The goad is a 
heavy^ substantial sharp-pointed stick, with which, now and 
again, the lagging ox or donkey gets a prod in the hip, 
accompanied with a very coarse hissing sound, which lets the 
imfortunate animals know what is coming, and the ordinary 
imprecation, " May your father be accursed, get on !" Clap- 
ping the hands is very common in Damascus. The nurse claps 
her hands to amuse the child ; the master claps his hands, 
and the slave makes his appearance to put the question. 
What does your excellency want ? Clapping the hands is 
also used on occasions of mirth and public festivity, and 
forms the basis of many beautiful scriptural allusions (Ps. 
xlvii. 1 ; xcviii. 8 ; Is. Iv. 12). They use rings on their 
fingers in the East, and among the Moslems a seal is neces- 
sary for the legality of written documents, and thus the law 
of religion, and the custom of the nation, unite in favour of 
rings. You see rings in the ears, rings in the nose, rings on 
the wrists, and rings on the ankles. The J ews in Damascus 
use a ring in the ceremony of marriage, as the English and 
Germans do ; and the ring and the mantle from the sovereign, 
denote elevation to the high offices of state (Gen. xli. 42, 43), 
as it was under the Pharaohs of Egypt. 

6th. The hand is used in the ordinary mode of salutation 
among the Arabs, Turks, and Orientals, in the following 
manner. Stand perfectly still and composed, lay your right 
hand slowly and deliberately upon the heart, and incline the 
head a little at the same time towards the person you wish to 
salute. But, understand, that this bow is not a nod; which. 



WASHING THE HANDS. 



177 



as far as I can judge, is unknown in tlie East, but a slow, 
solemn, stately inclination of the whole upper part of the 
body, and varies in length and deepness, according to your 
feelings of respect and veneration. If you wish to be very 
respectful to a superior, you must fall down at his feet, or 
kiss his hand, or the hem of his garment, as in the days of 
old, see Matt. xiii. 26, 29 ; Luke viii. 41 ; v. 8 ; Mark vii. 
25,, 26 ; and if you are passing through a country, and 
meet strangers, the only salutation necessary is, Peace be 
upon you," to which they respond, " Upon you be peace." 

7th. Washing the hands is more common in the East than 
with us. The Moslems must wash the hands and other parts 
of the body in order to be ceremoniously prepared for prayer^ 
and in many places the Koran has the glittering inscription 
in letters of gold ^^Ja^ ^\ ^), " Let none but the 
PURIFIED TOUCH IT." The heat of the climate renders frequent 
ablutions both healthful and agreeable, and where eating 
without knives and forks is fashionable, cleanliness requires 
the washing of the hands. The Orientals, however, do not 
wash by rubbing the hands so much as by dipping them in 
water, or by getting water poured upon them. In respectable 
houses the slaves bring a silver ewer full of water, a vessel 
surmounted by a cullender to receive it, and a plentiful supply 
of towels ; the guests, sitting on the divan like tailors, stretch 
forth their hands over the receiver, which is placed or held 
before them by a slave, while another pours the water gently 
upon them, and a third slave dries them with the towels, not 
by rubbing, which is never resorted to either in families or in 
the public baths, but by simply laying the dry towels upon 
the hands or upon the body. This custom of washing the 
hands either was universal or should have been so, for 
that the old Eomans did eat with their fingers instead 
of knives and forks, may be proved from the " greasy 

N 



178 



KNIVES AXD FORKS MODEmS". 



hands," mentioned by Horace (Epist. i. 16, 23), as well as 
many other documents of antiquity. The Greeks, indeed^ 
though dii't}^ enough in their present weakness and wretched- 
ness, after many centuries of political degradation, were 
formerly as cleanly in their habits regarding food as the most 
fastidious Pharisee could wish, for they washed and anointed 
themselyes before they went to the entertainment, washed the 
hands before they sat down to meat, repeated the same 
operation between the various courses, and finally completed 
their ablutions when all was over. The old Greeks, it appears, 
had no towels, or, at least, used none (Potter, 683), for they 
diied theii' hands by wiping them ^vith the soft parts of the 
bread, aTro/uay^aXiaiy which were afterwards thrown to the 
dogs, and to this, or some such custom, it is not improbable 
-i^iyjiov of the I^ew Testament (Matt. xv. 27 ; Mark vii. 28 ; 
Luke XAT.. 21,) refers. There is not a passage in all that re- 
mains of the Greek and Roman classics, nor anything that has 
been discovered among their ruins and monimients, which 
countenances the idea that knives and forks, in our sense of 
the term, were known to them. In fact, these celebrated 
nations, the one the embodiment of philosophical idealism, 
and the other of physical force, were, when compared with 
the refinements of modern Europe as to houses, habits, and 
above all moral sentiments, little more than barbarians. As 
to table fuimiture, however, we may assert, without fear of 
contradiction, that three hundred years ago there was no 
nation or tribe on the earth which used knives and forks at 
meals. They originated probably in the free, prosj)erous, and 
luxurious republics of Italy. At the end of the sixteenth 
century forks were beginning to make their appearance at 
some of the more refined coiu^ts of Europe. Our countryman, 
Thomas Coryate (Beckman, ii. 412), travelled through France, 
Italy, and Switzerland in 1608, and in his work of travels, 



THE RIGHT H.1ND. 



179 



called " Crudities/' lie describes the Italian cities and towns 
as the only places in Christendom where kniyes and forks were 
used. When first introduced into England they were treated 
with contempt, as intolerably effeminate. In one of Beaumont 
and Fletcher's plays, ''your fork-carving traveller" is un- 
sparingly ridiculed; and Ben Jonson joined heartily in the 
English laugh against the luxurious novelties, '' brought into 
custom here, as they are in Italy, to the sparing of napkins." 
I suppose, therefore, that the icasking of hands before and 
after meals was common with our ancestors, as it is at present 
universal in the East ; and our blessed Saviour does not con- 
demn the custom, though he rebukes the Pharisees for abusing 
it (Matt. XV. 20 ; Mark vii. 2, 5). 

8th. The Moslems esteem the right hand more honourable 
than the left, and as the left is used for all the actions of daily 
life, which, though unclean, are yet proper and necessary, so 
the right hand is used in the performance of all great, noble ^ 
and generous offices, as well as in the acts of eating and 
drinking. To eat with the left hand is, therefore, disgusting, 
and even to use it in assisting the right to disjoint and lacerate 
boiled fowls is considered bad manners. This preference of 
the right hand is a scriptural idea and fuU of meaning, though 
the Moslems apply it to ignoble and ludicrous objects. The 
right hand is the place of Jionour : 1 Kings ii. 19 ; Ps. xiv. 9 ; 
ex. 1—3, 5; Mark xiv. 62 ; xvi. 19 ; Heb. i. 3; viii. 1 ; x. 12 ; 
xii. 2 ; 1 Pet. iii. 22 ; Acts vii. 55 ; Eom. viii. 34. The right 
hand is the hand of acceptance, hence Jesus sits at the right 
hand of God to receive the supplications and prayers of his 
church. The right hand is the hand of distribution, and hence 
the ascended Mediator sheds down from the right hand of the 
majesty on high the inestimable gifts of the Holy Ghost. 
Acts ii. 35 ; Ps. Ixviii. 18 ; Acts ii. 4, 33. 

9th. Dyeing or Staining the Sands. This practice is mostly 

N 2 



180 



THE HEAD, ITS DRESS. 



confined to tlie ladies of the upper and middle ranks of society, 
vrho very often stain the nails of their hands or the whole 
fingers as far as the second joint, with a yellowish red dye, 
obtained from the pulverised leaves of the hernia tree [Laicsonia 
inennis), which grows abundantly on the banks of the Xile. 
The toes and the soles of the feet are often dyed in the same 
way, as well as other parts of the body, especially on the 
night before the marriage, which is therefore called the night 
of the henna. This practice does not seem to be alluded to in 
the Sacred Scripture. 

T. The Head. 

1st. The Kead-dress. Everybody in Syria wears a head-di'ess 
of some kind or other, with the exception of some orders of the 
fanatical Dervishes or Fakii's, who occasionally go without 
anv clothiiio' at all. The Grreeks and Eomans went bare- 
headed, except in their sacred festivals and when they went 
to war, and it is probable the ancient Jews did the same. The 
origin of the tui^ban seems to have been Babylon, and the 
captive Jews may have been led to adopt the custom of theii- 
conquerors (Dan. iii. 21). The tiu^ban is a long web of cloth, 
elegantly folded round the head over a tightly fitting white 
cap, of which half an inch is revealed like a white border 
roimd the temples, and adds not a little to the beauty and 
gracefulness of the head-dress. Among the higher classes these 
tui'bans are very costly, and folded, as they always are, with 
the greatest care, they fonn one of the noblest and most be- 
coming head-dresses in the world. Xeither heat nor cold 
can penetrate them, and in the day of battle they present a 
formidable obstacle, even to the Damascus blade. The green 
turbans are worn by the descendants of the prophet, the 
yelloicish icJiife denote the true believer, the ]\Ioslems in general, 
the grey are appropriated to the Christians, and the Hack 



THE HAI-R, SHAVEN. 



181 



turban distinguislies the poor persecuted Jews. Thus, amid 
the raotley appearances which meet the eye in the streets of 
Damascus, you recognise immediately the various classes of the 
inhabitants. In some such way, no doubt, the woman of 
Samaria knew the Saviour to be a Jew (J ohn iv. 9). The mili- 
tary dress, since the destruction of the Janizaries, is different 
from the ancient and truly national costume. Wide trousers, a 
coat, and the red fez- cap, with a large green silk tassel, dis- 
tinguish all the soldiers of the Sultan which I have seen, with the 
exception of the Albanians, whose costume, approaching the 
Scottish kilts, but much more becoming, seems to unite in a 
surprising degree utility, gracefulness, and facility of motion. 

2nd. The Hair. 1. In Damascus all classes shave off the 
hair, about as regularly as we cut it. This seems the result 
of wearing the turban, which, without the assistance of haii', 
keeps the head sufficiently warm. The ^Moslems . leave a 
little tuft on the crown of the head, to afford facilities for 
carr}^g the head if it should be cut off in battle, or, as 
others think, to afford the prophet the means of drawing 
them up into paradise. Be the origin of the custom what 
it may, the fact is certain, as I have seen the tuft often in 
the baths, and elsewhere, when the Moslems uncovered the 
head. The ladies, on the contrary, take the greatest care of 
the hair, dividing into braids, and folding it with the most 
tasteful elegance ; in many cases, and on state occasions, the 
folds of the hair are glittering with diamonds and precious 
pearls, like a reticulated crown, as I have seen among wealthy 
Jewesses in Damascus. After marriage, the Jewess wears 
false hair. In Eg}^t the Moslem ladies allow side locks, 
like ringlets, to fall down the cheeks ; and as the men swear 
by the beard, and by the life of the beard, so the ladies swear 
by the life of their ornamental locks (Lane's Egypt, i. 50). 
In Constantinople Lady Montague counted 110 tresses on 



182 THE HAIR DENOTES FIERCENESS ; 

the head of one lady (Paxton, i. 311) ; and throughout the 
entire East, and we may add everywhere, the ladies are fully 
conscious that Grod has given them long hair for an orna- 
ment, and seem inclined to make the most of the gift, and 
even turn it into an instrument of their pride. This folly 
and extravagance are severely rebuked by the apostle, who 
teaches us to look from the outward form and appearance, 
however ornamented with gold and plaited hair, and beau- 
tiful apparel, to the hidden man of the heart, where the 
true ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is to be found 
(1 Pet. iii. 3. Compare 1 Tim, ii. 9). The apostle's argu- 
ment is not so much against the use of gold, and decent 
ornaments of any kind, as against the abuse of them — the 
excessive love of finery which distinguished the Jewesses, 
and was so fearfully condemned by the Grod of Israel (Is. iii.), 
and which, if serving no better end, may silence the cavils 
of infidels against the Jewish people, as an ignorant, unci- 
vilised, and semi-barbarous race. Paris itself might be chal- 
lenged to surpass in luxury, vanity, and ornamental splen- 
dour, the toilet and wardrobe of the proud daughters of 
Israel (Is. iii. 16 — 26). I believe it is a general principle 
among most of the nations of the earth, ancient and modern, 
that the men cut the hair short, and the tvomen allow it to 
grow long ; and in this, as in everything else, we see the 
truth and beauty of the divine word (1 Cor. xi. 14). The 
exceptions, like Absalom (2 Sam. xiv. 26), and other vain 
and efieminate persons, are not more than sufficient to esta- 
blish the generality of the rule. 

2. We may trace in the word /^^^^>, as used in the 
Eastern world, the manifestation of the strong and fierce 
passions which have influenced all their modes of life and 
forms of expression. The original idea of (sa-Aar, 
Ger, haar, our hair), as well as the cognate I^D, to rage, to 



AND SOMETIMES TERROR. 



183 



storm, seems to have been that of erection, or standing up ; 
and hence the Orientals designated hair from the effects 
which strong passion produces upon it. Ezekiel mentions 
this fact in natural history, T\V^ (xxvii. 35, comp. xxxii. 
10 ; Job iv. 15), horripilayerunt crines — their hair stood on 
end from terror. The pious ^neas was struck with horror, 
and, steterunt comce, his hair stood on end, and his voice 
stuck in his throat, when the beloved phantom appeared to 
him (^n. ii. 774. Comp. iii. 48 ; iv. 280 ; xii. 868 ; Ovid 
Met. iii. 100; Fast. i. 97). So the spirit that passed before 
the face of Eliphaz, made the hair of his flesh stand up 
(Job iv. 15) ; and the tale of the royal ghost in Hamlet — 

" Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, 
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, 
Thy knotty and combined locks to part, 
And each particular hair to stand on end, 
LiJce quills u^wn the fretful porcupine." 

The Arabs use the same word for hair ; but with 
them the idea is varied a little, and the root signifies to 
knoto, because the trembling limb, the pallid face, and the 
bristling hair, reveal what is passing in the mind (the Latins 
have onnis from Kpivdo, to judge, to discern) ; and hence, with 
a slight variation in the vowelling, it means poetry, to be a 
poet, &c. ; because the poet should be acquainted with all 
the departments of nature and of history (Rasselas, x.), and 
like the prophet (Yates, Fatuus, hence fatuor, to be a fool, 
and to be inspired — madness and divine agency being joined 
together in the superstitions of all nations) be able to anti- 
cipate the events of futurity. The Greeks, on the contrary, 
looked on the hair as a defence against the cold, and hence 
they called it 0jOi^, from 0£^ct>, to warm ; and from this thrix 
of the Greeks comes, probably, the treccia, tresse, and tresses, 



184 



ANOINTING THE HAIR. 



of our modern languages (Doddridge on Luke vii. 28). All 
these are but the developments of the original idea in va- 
rious nations and languages, and in the tracing of roots and 
radical ideas through all lingual ramifications, we see the 
bents and tendencies of national character and taste. 

3. Anointing the Hair. In Syria and Palestine the use 
of oil is as prevalent as in the days of old. Olive oil, 
almond oil, essences, perfumes, and cosmetics of all descrip- 
tions, are there in abundance. Oil is, indeed, a most im- 
portant article in the East, and is used (1.) as a part of 
human food (1 Kings xvii. 12 ; 2 Kings iv. 2 — 7 ; 1 Chron. 
xxvii. 28 ; Ezek. xvi. 3 ; (2.) it is used medicinally, as in 
the time of the good Samaritan (Luke x. 34) ; indeed, 
among the mass of the people, there is hardly any other 
medicine known ; (3.) to brighten the skin, and open the 
pores of the body (compare Esth. ii. 12 ; Ps. civ. 15j ; (4.) 
in many countries it is used by the half- naked inhabitants 
as a defence against the heat of the sun, which otherwise 
would harden and wither up the skin ;^ (5.) it is the chief 
source of light in our houses ; and (6.) it is used to anoint 
the head and hair, as in the time of the Psalmist (Ps. xxiii. 5). 
As a symbol oil denotes the gifts and graces of the Holy 
Spirit (Acts X. 38), and is applied to our Lord Jesus Christ 
(1.) in the miraculous conception, whereby he was born holy ; 
(2.) in the baptism, whereby he became the public man and 
prophet of the Lord; (3.) in his ascension, whereby he 
received the mighty fulness of the Holy Spirit, to distribute 
to his church, in the different ages, according to his good 
pleasure. The Greeks used oil in the same way since the 
most ancient times. Juno anoints herself with fat, cXatw 
ajdf^poaiw (H. xiv. 171, 172), ambrosial oil, that she might 
be the more pleasing to her husband (see Esth. ii. 12). At 
the command of Achilles, the body of his friend Patroclus 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES. 



185 



is washed, and anointed with rich oil (II. xviii. 350), as the 
Orientals do at present, and as the Jews did of old (Acts ix. 
37, and Matt. xxvi. 12; Luke xxiii. 56). The young men 
and maidens meet in the fields and groves, clothed in gar- 
ments shining with oil, o-riX/3o»^rctc cXatw (H- xviii. 596), 
like those of Aaron, the Jewish high-priest (Ps. cxxxiii. 2 ; 
Ex. XXX. 25 — 30). Achilles threatens to give the lacerated 
body of Hector to the dogs (see 1 Kings xxi. 19, &c. ; Eev. 

xxii. 15) ; but Yenus protects the warlike Trojan, and anoints 
his wounds with ambrosial otta of roses, po^oevn cXaiw (II. 

xxiii. 186) ; which custom, with the addition of wine, was 
practised near Jericho by the good Samaritan (Luke x. 34). 
Telemachus, and the wandering Ulysses, required and used 

the odoriferous oil," Ev(jt)dsQ sXaiov (Odys. ii. 339) and the 
sweet wine, as well as the modern Arabs and the ancient 
Jews (2 Chron. xi. 11) ; and the bath which the fair Poly- 
casta prepared for the garrulous old JN^estor, with the rich 
oil which he used after it (Odys. iii. 467) must have had a 
powerful effect, for they made him aOavaroiGiv oiaoioc, like 
the immortal gods. The same thing is stated, simply and 
truly, in the Scripture (Ps. civ. 15). To which we may add 
the example of the old Pomans. Yirgil describes hair 
dropping with myrrh — myrrha madentes — (^n. xii. 100 ; 
compare Plin. i. 12, 15). And Horace prepares for his patron, 
Maecenas, old wine, rose-flowers, and essences for the hair — 
pressa tuis balanus capillis (Odes, iii. 29, 4). The wife of 
ISTero, Poppsea, invented a pomatum to preserve her beauty 
made of asses' milk, in which she was in the habit of bathing. 
Some used pumice stones to smooth the skin ; others used 
plasters to remove the small hair from the cheek, or pulled 
it out by the roots, as the Orientals continue to do ; and as 
to the hair, they frizzled it ydth hot irons, piled it up in 
stories, as we did formerly in England, tinged it, painted it, 



186 THE BEARD TO SHAVE, OR NOT TO SHAVE? 

anointed it with the ricliest perfiimeSj kept female hair- 
dressers to take care of it, and flung the steel or silver- 
mirror at their heads if they arrayed it negligently (Adams' 
Antiq. 360). 

3rd. The Beard. 1. In most nations the beard is retained 
and venerated as the symbol of manly vigour in the days of 
our strength, and of deferential respect and authority in our 
old age. Among the Romans the goddess of fortune, or 
fashion, sometimes protected the beard, and at others cut it 
off with unsparing hand. The ancient church fathers wore 
beards, and condemned the contrary habit as a profane 
attempt to improve the workmanship of God. Many, if not 
most of our reformers and martyrs, retained the venerable 
symbol ; and to France it is, under Louis XIII. and XI Y., 
the first of its shaven sovereigns, that we owe the practice 
of shaving in Europe. As to the question — to shave, or not 
to shave ? — I prefer the latter, if habit did not intervene with 
her imperial fiat. Quem penes arbitrium est, et jus, et norma 
tondendi (Hor. de Arte Poetica, 72 ; compare Quint, i. 6). The 
advantages of a beard are, first, that it is natural, and serves 
to distinguish the sexes without the fictitious distinctions of 
dress. Secondly, it is highly ornamental, and adds, conse- 
quently, to the appearance and dignity of man. Thirdly, 
as the eyelashes are useful, and the hair upon the eyebrows 
also ; as the bee, and other insect tribes, cannot dispense with 
their feelers, or mouth defenders ; nor the cat and the lion 
with their whiskers, which for wise purposes the Creator has 
given them, so do I believe that the human beard is useful 
in defending the mouth against dust, noxious vapours, and 
miasmata of all kinds ; and physicians are beginning to see 
the truth of this principle, especially in some trades, that of 
stone-cutters, for example, of whom it is asserted that the 
shaven, as a class, do not live, by years, so long as their un- 



SWEARING BY THE BEAHD. 



187 



shaven fellow-labourers, I may add, lastly, tlie pain and 
f rouble of shaving, as well as the expense and loss of time. 
As to the Oriental nations, we may observe, 

I see no positive command of the Lord that the Jews 
should not shave the beard. Many of the laws and customs 
of the nation, however, take for granted that the beard is 
preserved, and the whole nation, through all its checkered 
history, retained this venerable appendage with great and 
reKgious care. Their example in this, as in many things else, 
has led the custom in the Eastern world, and, except among 
a few young fops in the rising generation, in great capitals 
and commercial cities, where Europeanism has some influ- 
ence, all classes, Moslems, Christians, and Jews, vie with 
each other in ornamenting and venerating the beard. It is 
combed, trimmed, and anointed with the greatest care, and 
looked upon as a visible testimonial to the dignity and re- 
spectability of the wearer. 

2. Swearing by the beard is quite common in the East. 
An old scheikhj selling me a Koran, laid his hand on his 
long flowing beard and swore by his heard and by the life of 
his heard that the price was so much and not more. The 
Orientals, and I believe, all the heathen nations, are addicted 
to the fearful habit of profane swearing, and taking God's 
name in vain. The Jews had the same habit, and the 
Redeemer rebuked them sharply for it (Matt. v. 34 — 36). 
The J ews swore by the head, and the Moslems swear by the 
heard. The Eomans and Greeks were also addicted to these 
degrading habits of superstition and profanity in their con- 
versation, and even in their public discourses. The Greeks, 
indeed, like the Irish peasantry, have the habit of making 
almost every conceivable object the instrimient of adjuration 
(see Potter, oaths), and lest anything should be omitted which 
might add to the solemnity of the oath, they often swore 



188 



DYEING THE BEARD. 



indefinitely by any of tlie gods, and by all of them together, 
as the Papists do, by certain distinguished saints, or by all 
of them together. Why do yon repeat the holy name of 
God so often?" said I to a Moslem woman in the gardens of 
Damascus. She replied, ''A thousand times and a thousand 
ivays, Mohammed has led the way in this profanation by prac- 
tising it in the Koran. In every conversation among the 
Arabs, the sound that most frequently pollutes the ear is the 
name of Grod. Your servant arouses you from 3^our tent in the 
morning by invoking his name, and the muleteer urges on the 
train b}'' the same impious and desecrating shout. As to the 
Arab fashion of swearing by the heard, I find no trace of it 
among the Old Testament J ews. They cut ofi* the hair and 
the beard in grief (Is. iii. 24; xv. 2 ; Jer. xK. 5), as Achilles 
and his companions did around the bier of Patroclus (Iliad, 
xxiii. 135). The Greeks, iadeed, made the cutting of the 
hair, Opii (bristles), a most solemn part of their prayers, 
vows, and imprecations (Iliad, xix. 254), and the Oriental idea 
has been humourosly Anglicized in the "Eape of the 
Lock," by Mr. Pope. 

" But by this lock, this sacred lock, I swear, 
AYhich never more shall join its parted hair, 
That while my nostrils draw the vital air, 
The hand which won it shall for ever wear." 

3. The Easterns are in the habit, in many parts, of dyeing 
the beard, in order to give it a more beautiful and majestic 
appearance. The colours most in vogue are black and red, 
but in some places the blueish hue is considered the most 
venerable. Dyeing the beard is, however, the exception and 
not the rule in any part of the East that I have visited, and 
with regard to the dressing and trimming it (2 Sam. xix. 24), 
the customs are as various as possible. They allow it to 
grow long, and they cut it short ; they train it into a massy 



TKE EYES. 



189 



busliy form, swelling and globular ; and they terminate it 
like a pyramid in a sharp point. They allow it to grow wild, 
viz., without cutting or clipping at all, and they form it into 
beautiful wreaths or braids, which are gently folded into one 
another with the greatest care ; but, whatever be the 77iode, 
there is never any want of care and respect. The Moslems 
of Damascus carry with them a small comb called miisht, 
which they use in combing their beards to while away the 
tedious hour. The shaving of David's ambassadors (2 Sam. 
X. 4) was a mortal offence, an insult never to be forgiven, 
and would be esteemed so at the present day. They consider 
it always as the symbol of the man, and in many coimtries of 
the free man, the slaves being compelled to shave ; hence 
cutting it is degradation, and plucking it out a symbol of 
deep grief (Jer. xli. 5), or fearful punishment (Ezra ix. 3 ; 
Is. i. 6). The neglecting it is a sign of mourning, as it was 
among the Jews (2 Sam. xix. 24 ; 1 Sam. xxi. 3) ; the want 
of a fine beard, and baldness in general, is considered a great 
misfortune, as it was among the Romans and the Jews (Is. 
XV. 2 ; Jer. xlviii. 37). And I may add, in conclusion, that 
in this, as in everything else that pertains to the Orient, the 
Bible customs are those that prevail with few exceptions in 
the whole Eastern world at the present time. 

4th. The Eyes most admired among the Arabs must be 
large and black, full of a pleasing softness of expression, 
which on occasions may be kindled into fiery ardour, like 
those which the ancient Greeks admired so much in Juno 
(/SowTTic iroTvia 'H^r?, the venerable oxeyed), and which have 
been celebrated from Homer to Byron, " As the light of a 
dark eye in woman." ^Notwithstanding the natural beauty 
of the eye, and the exquisite workmanship by which the 
Creator has adorned it, the practice of painting it is nearly 
as old as the eye itself. It is probable it prevailed in the 



190 



PAINTING THE EYES. 



days of Job, for lie called his three daughters (xlii. 14), Jeraima, 
Kezia, and Keren- Happiich, which being interpreted means, 
in our language and manner of speaking. Miss Day, Miss 
Cassia, and Miss Paint-box. This shows us, at the same 
time, the custom which prevails in the East imiversally, 
of naming female children after the sun or the stars, the 
diamonds of the mine, or the pearls of the deep, the beau- 
tiful flowers of the garden, or the choicest attributes of the 
mind. Shems, Nejme, and Werde are among the commonest 
names in Damascus. Jezebel painted her eye8 with the 
object of captivating the conqueror (2 Kings ix. 30), and the 
majority of the upper classes of females in the East continue 
the practice at the present time. It is probable that stibium 
or antimony was formerly used for this pur]30se, and in some 
places it may be so used still, especially for painting the 
edges of the eyelids. Kohl, the substance now in general 
use for blackening the eyes and the eyebrows, is produced 
by burning liban, a kind of frankincense, and by burning 
the shells of almonds. This kind is merely ornamental, but 
the kohl, formed from the powder of the ore of lead, is used 
as much for its supposed medicinal as its beautifying pro- 
perties. The arch of the eyebrow is much darkened and 
elongated, and the edges of the eyelids, both above and 
below, tinged with the dark hues of the kohl, which is 
supposed to add to the natural beauty of the countenance 
by the effects of contrast. This is a great mistake. It 
diminishes the attractions of the beautiful, and turns plain- 
ness into absolute deformity ; and yet this painting of the 
eyes and the face seems to have existed from the earKest 
ages and to be co-extensive with the human race. The 
Egyptians had this practice, as is proved abundantly from 
the ancient sculptures and paintings of the nation, as well as 
the kohl- vessels and probes which were found in the tombs 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES. 



191 



(Lane's Egyptians, i. 42). Job's daughters and Ahab's queen, 

show us tlie custom of the times in wbicb they Kved (Job 

xKi. 14 — in Heb. text — 2 Kings ix. 30 ; Ezek. xxiii. 40 ; Jer. 

iv. 30). The Greeks used the o<^Qa\f.i(x>v vTroypa<l>r], the 

painting of the eyes, as is evident from Clemens Alex., Paed. 

iii. 2. Compare Xenophon, Cyrop. i. 15. The old Romans 

painted their eyes, for PKny says, Tanta est decoris alFec- 

tatio^ ut tingantur oculi quoque." — Such is their affectation 

of ornament, that they paint even their eyes (Hist. Nat. 

xi. 37). Cyprian denounces this painting of the eyes with 

fiery vehemence, "Anoint your eyes not with the devil's 

antimony, but with the eyesalve of Christ " (Dr. A. Clarke 

on 2 Kings ix. 30). And Juvenal (Sat. ii. 93) lashes the 

licentious wretches, who in their revelry imitate the practices 

of the women. 

" lUe supercilium madida fuligiue tactiim 

Obliqua producit acn, pingitque trementes 
' AttoUens oculos." 

" With sooty moisture one his eyebrows dyes, 
And with a bodkin paints his trembling eyes." 

Regulus, a famous lawyer under Domitian, used to anoint 
his right or left eye, and wear a white patch over the right 
side or the left of his forehead, as he was to plead, either for 
the plaintiff or defendant (Adams' Antiq. 363) ; and it is well 
enough known to the readers of the " Spectator," that the 
English ladies used formerly both paint and patches ; nor 
would it be impossible to find traces of similar customs 
among the French ladies of the present time. The evil eye is 
dreaded very much in Damascus, and charms of various kinds 
are used to nullify its efiects. They wear charms, amulets, 
and passages of the Koran, as the Jews also do (with the ex- 
ception only that their quotations are from the Scriptures), to 
preserve them against this fearful enemy. Children are in 



192 



THE FACE, ITS ORNAMENTS. 



the greatest danger, and if especially good and beautiful, their 
parents are kept in constant alarm lest some envious eye 
should blast their brightest hopes. I saw written on a door 
in Damascus, the words, " I put my trust in God, and defy 
the abominable devil. The charms and receipts against the 
evil eye are nearly innumerable, and Solomon the great king 
of the genii, figures in not a few of their incantations. On 
the whole subject see Lane^s Egypt, ii. 11. The evil eye in 
the Scripture has no reference to this degrading superstition, 
but denotes the envying or grieving at the good of another, 
which is, indeed, a great sin and most unlike the character of 
the gracious and beneficent Grod (Prov. xxiii. 6 ; xxviii. 22 ; 
Matt. vi. 23 ; xx. 15 ; Mark vii. 22). 

5th. The Face. Bar-rings and nose jewels. But here comes 
a company of J ewish and Christian ladies ; they are invited 
to spend the evening at the house of the British consul of 
Damascus, Mr. "Wood, and we shall have an opportunity of 
seeing their faces, ornaments, and head -gear, which in the 
case of Moslem ladies were an utter impossibility. They are 
the captives of the harem, and, except to the nearest relatives, 
may not appear unveiled. You may observe then, 1., that the 
daughters of Abraham preserve the distinctive characteristics 
of the Jewish nation — the dark hair, the black eyes, the long 
nose, the strange, wild, beautiful, sorrowful appearance, 
recognised in a moment, but not easily described. Observe, 
2., that Jews and Christians are as white in the colour of 
the skin as the ladies of England or France. Remember 
that the Syrian sun never shines upon them, and if their 
faces are at present imveiled it is because they are in the 
house of a friend. How the hair glitters with gold, and the 
braids interwoven with jewels rise tier above tier in glossy, 
sparkling luxuriance ! The ears are not empty ; rings, 
jewels, pendants of all forms, and in all varieties, adorn the 



EAR-RINGS, NOSE-JEWELS. 193 

sides of tlie head ; they are round, they are oval ; they are 
large, they are small; they are long, they are short; they are 
light, they are heavy ; and if yon take in the whole popula- 
tion, they are of all substances, gold, silver, brass, ivory, and 
wood. Compare Gen. xxxv. 4. This text, compared with 
Hosea ii. 13, demonstrates the universal custom in the East 
of wearing ear-rings, the licentious nature of the worship 
of Baal, and lastly, that the ear-rings were sometimes, then as 
now, connected with incantation and idolatry (Gen. xxxv. 4). 
You observe, how the eyebrows are elongated and darkened ; 
the eyelids also tinged with the favourite kohl ; strings of 
pearls descend down the cheeks ; the delicate hands have no 
gloves, but the nails are stained with the henna : and the 
whole carriage and bearing of these Oriental ladies, is that 
of pride, ignorance, and self-possession. They are not 
squeezed into the shape of a sand-glass, as in Europe ; the 
neck and bosom are thoroughly covered, and if they have not 
the brilliant thoughts and sparkling wit of the English 
ladies, it is because fashion has taken a different direction, 
and society is otherwise constructed. 'Nose jewels they have 
none. The Jewesses of Damascus and the East have given 
up the ornaments of Rebekah, for Eliezer having met her at 
the well, and being kindly received by the damsel, proceeded 
to put the ring HSK"'^!^ upon her nose, and the bracelets 
upon her hands (Gen. xxiv. 22, 47 ; Is. iii. 21 ; Prov. xi. 22). 
But are nose-jewels not worn in the East ? They are in 
thousands, but in S5rria and Egjrpt I have never seen them 
among the respectable classes of society. They are found 
among the Africans and slaves, and may possibly be a token 
of servitude. In Hindostan, however, the custom is different, 
and in some districts every married Hindoo woman wears a 
large ring in the central division of the nose, which falls 
down quite over the mouth and chin. The same custom 

o 



194 



THE VEIL. 



prevails in Europe among tlie married women, but they wear 
tlie ring on the hand. The Jews in Damascus marry with a 
ring, as is done in England. You are not to suppose that a 
uniform custom in regard to ear-rings, nose-jewels, or almost 
any other kind of ornament, prevails over the boundless 
regions of the East. Sometimes, as in Damascus, the female 
garniture is decent and becoming, nor has nature been over- 
laid with the complications of art and fashion. In other 
regions, the lips and the teeth, the eyelids and the eyebrows, 
are as black as ink ; and the face, the forehead, the breast and 
the arms tattooed with fantastic forms of various kinds, so 
that nearly all the traces of the human visage are submerged 
in the multitude of tawdry decorations. 

6th. The Veil. The veil is very ancient, as we learn from 
Gen. xxiv. 65 ; where Rebekah covered herself with ^''^iJH 
(hazzaif,) the veily the known proper bridal attire which she 
had brought with her for the purpose, and in which the 
custom of the country required her to be arrayed on the 
occasion. I have seen the bridal veil in Damascus, where it 
is white; at Aleppo, it is red (Russell's Aleppo) ; and in other 
lands it may be of different colours still, but in the East the 
veil for the bride is indispensable. The same word is used (Gren. 
xxxviii. 14), where Tamar wrapped herself up in the veil, and 
covered her face after the manner of harlots, and thereby 
deceived Judah. This does not, however, necessarily prove 
that women in general did not cover their faces with veils, 
but only that there was a special usage, which was appro- 
priate to prostitutes, as there was among the Greeks and 
Romans a special dress which they were compelled to wear, 
and as among all nations there are special habits, manners, 
and ornaments, which they assume. The za'if is the only 
word used for this article of dress in the Pentateuch; (the veil 
of Moses, Ex. xxxiv. 33, is a different word;) and was 



DIFFERENT USAGES OF THE VEIL. 195 

perhaps the only word used in that early age, but afterwards 
the veils became more varied, and perhaps much longer, and 
were called JinH)ID!0 mitpachath (Euth iii. 15 ; Is. iii. 2^), 
or, ini radid (Song v. 7), from roots which signify to 
spread out, because the garment enveloped the whole person 
like a wrapper. If the word zaif was retained in the latter 
ages of the nation, which is probable enough, it must have 
been appropriated to the face-veil or mandeel, as there is 
little doubt that the mitpachath and the radid denoted the 
loose wrapper which the women put on when they went into 
the open air. The present mode of veiling in Damascus is 
this ; a good large handkerchief, generally of silk and cotton, 
and of a darkish colour, is laid over the head, so as to hang 
down over the face and breast ; then the white wrapper or 
sheet is laid upon the head above the eyes, and so folded 
around the body that the face-veil is kept firm upon the 
head and face, and the whole person invested with a snowy 
mantle, except the front face, which, having only the dark 
coloured veil over it, appears somewhat sombre and melan- 
choly. Three colours meet your eye as you survey the ladies 
in the streets of Damascus — yelloiv slippers, dark veils, and 
white wrappers ; the last is, however, so predominant, as to 
make you . forget everything else in the female costume. 
In Egypt, this all- equalising and all- concealing wrapper is 
black or checkered black and white, and adds to the forbidding 
appearance of the people. In the use of these veils and 
wrappers, however, the customs vary considerably in different 
places ; sometimes the veil is omitted, and sometimes the 
wrapper ; some places the whole face is covered, as in Damas- 
cus ; in others it is all covered but one eye (Song iv. 9). 
Among the Turks the face-veil is often of black crape (Rus- 
sell's Aleppo, i. 113) ; among the Egyptians it is often white; 
among the Syrians it is neither black nor white, but of a dark 

o g 



196 



VEIL NOT WORN AT HOME. 



greyisli colour. You observe here, the law of the fashion, 
which is that, when the veil is white the wrapper is black, 
and when the veil is black the wrapper is white, for the 
ladies delight in varieties of colour. These veils are worn 
from the age of four years, and form the most necessary part 
of a woman's attire. They never go out without them. The 
Moslem religion requires that women should conceal every- 
thing attractive in or about their persons, from all men save 
their husbands, fathers, and a few of their nearest relatives ; 
and hence the Mohammedan ladies are particularly attentive 
to the adjustment of the veil. They wear no veil at home. I 
went ignorantly once into a Moslem house in Damascus, with- 
out knocking or shouting to give intimation of my presence. 
The result was, a wild scream and cry of terror, as if honour, 
virtue, and all that is noblest in the feminine character 
had been at stake. I retired instantly, and was glad to find 
that my ignorance was accepted as a sufiicient apology. The 
veil was not used by the ancient Egyptians, and the wrapper 
I cannot help considering as an absurd and unbecoming 
afiectation of modesty. It reduces the whole female sex to 
an equality, and if it seems to dignify and elevate what is 
below mediocrity by concealment, it at the same time anni- 
hilates all the pleasing varieties of forms and features by an 
uninteresting and ghost-like uniformity. 



foraal of % '§\mi 



JANUAEY TO DECEMBER, 1853. 



JOURNAL OF THE RHINE. 



JAIOJAitT. 

I, The Angels' Song. II. Blessed be His glorious Name. III. The Ger- 
man Christmas Tree. IV. Bernard's Hymn. V. Modem Deists. VI. 
Jesus the Home of the Heart. VII. The Majesty and Perfections of 
God. VIII. Transfiguratio. IX. Where is He to be found? X. The 
Protestants of Hungary. XI. The Persecution of the Madiai. Marks of 
the True Church. XII. A Letter from Hungaiy. XIII. "Qy re QeoL 
^CKiovai veavLaKOQ reXevTa. XIV. The fruitful Vin&. XV. Architec- 
ture. XVI. Tracts. XVII. Questions for the Pope. 



I.— THE ANGELS' SONG. Luke ii. 14. 

I BRING you a message of grace and love, 
The King is come from the realms above; 
Humble and lowly, fi.-om Juda's stem, 
He lies in the stable of Bethlehem. 

Seers of old, in the distance far, 
Beheld the light of the rising star, 
And sang of Him, the wonder-child. 
By whom the fallen are reconciled. 

No heavenly state attends Him now ; 
No glory-radiance around his brow ; 
He stoops so low — but he stoops to save 
Erom the curse of sin and the loathsome grave. 



200 



" BLESSED BE HIS GLORIOUS NAME." 



Ao^a rw 0£w, in angel strains, 
Ao^a rw 0£w, Messiah reigns, 
Adsa TO) Qe<j, in Heaven above, 
Ao^a -w Gew, for God is Love ! 

January 1st, 1853. 



II.— mnD inn 

Blessed be liis glorious name ! " (Ps. Ixxii. 19.) " His name 
is as ointment poured forth His glorious name is the defence 
of his people Israel. May his love, which is better than wine, 
fill our hearts with all the fulness of his joy, and so we will 
follow the leadings of the heayenly bridegroom, (Cant. i. 4) ; 
" His name shall endure for eyer ;" ages and generations, and 
worlds, and starry systems, may pass away, but thou, 0 Son of 
Grod, remainest the same, and thy years shall not fail (Heb. 
i. 12) ; thy glorious person, the God- [Man, remains still the 
rock, the refuge, the key and corner-stone of all human hopes; 
thy loye remains the same, thy power to saye the lost, thy 
tender compassion, which no tongue of man or angel can tell, 
thy ineffable djdng loye, remains as deep and compassionating 
as eyer. Hast thou no more tears, 0 Jesus, to shed oyer the 
lost ? Do the eternal compassions of God fail ? 0, my God, 
thou art the same as in the days of old. Thy word is still 
" come," and the arms of eternal mercy are stretched out still. 
May this year be a happy one ! May thousands and tens of 
thousands hear the joyful message of salyation through the 
cross ! May the yeil be taken from the heart of Israel ! And 
may our life — mine and thine, brother ! — ^be a life of purer 
loye and deeper holiness than before ! May we liye with 
Him, in Him, to Him, and for Him — Him alone, Him every- 
where, and Him for e^rermore ! — 



THE GERMAN CHRISTMAS TREE. 



201 



Tn dii- 0 Jesus, ist mein Himmel 

Dein Nam' ist meine Seligkeit ! 
Im Sorgendrang, im Weltgetiimmel 

Geibt er mir Halt und Festigkeit. 
Ist Jesus immer meine Frende, 
Bleibt jeder bose Geist beiseite. 

I. From this day I devote myself, Lord Jesus, to thy service 
ODce more, and hope through grace to serve, follow, and love 
thee more and better than last year. 

II. I desire fellowship with thee, 0 God of my salvation, 
and I resolve by thy grace to cultivate a more meek and quiet 
spirit than formerly, that my commmiion with the Lord may 
be as little interrupted as possible. 

III. I resolve henceforth to grieve the Holy Spirit, to resist 
and quench his heavenward motions, as little as possible, and 
especially to lay aside all bitterness, wrath, temper, evil- 
speaking, uncharitable thoughts, that as a child I may walk 
with God in the simplicity of the gospel. 

Sunday, January 2nd, 1853. 



III.— THE GEEMAN CHRISTMAS TEEE. 

The origin of this singular custom is not easily traced, and 
we shall content ourselves by stating the practice and its 
associations. The week before the festival, go out into the 
market of any German town, and you will see hundreds, yes, 
thousands, of fir trees of various sizes, from two to two-and- 
twenty feet high, arrayed in rows for sale. Let us follow that 
goodly dame who has purchased her tree, and see what she 
does with it. She takes it home, and conveys it secretly to a 
room set apart for the purpose. This room is the sanctum of 
the house; the family are shut out, the servants are not 



202 



THE GERMAN CHRISTMAS TREE. 



admitted, and everything in it and about it is surrounded with 
mystery. How the heart of the child aches to enter ! but it 
shall not enter. Grift s of all kinds are gathered into this room 
for the children, the grandchildren, and all the friends of the 
family, as well as the domestics. These are all elegantly 
arranged, and labelled with the names of those that are to 
receive them. Hence the joy, the wonder, the anxiety con- 
nected with the mysterious room. The tree stands in the 
centre, its branches from the top to the bottom are laden with 
varieties of gifts; men and animals of all kinds; household 
furniture and warlike instruments ; angels, cupids, fiddles, 
tobacco pipes, caps, bonnets, shoes, elephants, donkeys, ducks, 
and indeed all conceivable figures — the rarer and more valuable 
the better — done in stone, iron, gold, silver, tin, copjDer, wax, 
or if you prefer less expense, in tvood, sugar, and gingerbread ; 
golden and silver apples (gold-leaf) form dazzliag pendants, 
among elegant draperies of beautifully cut ornamental paper 
of many colours ; the entire tree is filled from root to branch, 
from top to bottom, with all kinds of gifts, devices, and wonder- 
ful figures which Grerman ingenuity can imagine ! JSTow 
make ready, for the hour is come, and about 100 small wax 
candles are fixed firmly to the branches in tin sockets. It is 
the evening of Christmas, the family and relatives have 
assembled, the friends and neighbours are coming fast, the 
little ones are leaping with joy, the grandsires are more than 
usually benignant ; but the whole glory of the room, and the 
tree, and the gifts, encircles the good woman of the house — 
" the Hausfrau," — and see, she enters the sacred shrine ! Open 
Sesame," and the doors are thrown open ! ^Vhat a scene ! 
A galaxy of light ! And from the centre, and through the 
crevices of the bright circumference, a thousand elegant forms 
make their appearance, to the great delight of young and old. 
All is wondered, all is praised ; the children dance and sing 



Bernard's hymn. 



203 



round tlie wonder- tree ; the family cares and feuds are for- 
gotten and forgiven in tlie universal out-burst of happiness 
and joy. The custom is beautiful, and its moral good. It 
connects Christ's birth, as a season of joy to men and angels, 
with the finest sentiments of family life, and thus incorporates 
in the habits of nature the memorials of the God of grace. 
The tree is a Protestant custom, and suits admirably the free 
joyous spirit which Luther impressed upon the great Reforma- 
tion. This day we gave the children of the Sunday-school 
their tree ; about 150 children assembled in my rooms around 
three trees. We sang hymns, distributed cakes, apples, and 
tracts to them all, and the Rev. Mr. Wichelhaus concluded 
with an address and prayer. We were all joyous together, and 
many Germans and English came to see the school and the 
trees. 

January Uh, 1853. 



lY.— BERNARD'S HYMN. 



Come let us with the morning sun glorify our Lord and 
Redeemer, Jesus Christ, in the sweet words of the good Saint 
Bernard. 



O Jesu, mi dulcissime, 
Spes spirantis animse, 
Te quaerunt pise lacrymse 
Te clamor mentis intimae. 

Jesu, dulcedo cordium, 
Tons vivus, lumen mentium, 
Excedens omne gaudium, 
Et omne desiderium. 

Quando cor nostrum visitas, 
Tunc lucet .ei Veritas, 
Mundi vilescit vanitas, 
Et intus fervet charitas. 



Holy Jesus, Saviour blest, 
Joy of every beating breast, 
All my hopes are found in Thee, 
Now and through eternity. 

Jesus, balm of all our woes, 
Victor over all our foes ; 
Jesus, fount of love divine ; 
Holy Jesus, Thou art mine. 

Thou dost take my guilt away ; 
Thou dost make my darkness d£ 
Worldly joys attract no more, 
Jesus' love is all my store. 



204 



BERNARD S HTMN. 



Jesu, mi bone, sentiam 
Amoris tui copiam, 
Da milii per praesentiam 
Tuam videre gloriam. 



Jesus, fill me with thy gi'ace, 
Make my soul thy dwelling-place; 
Give me in thy present love 
Foretastes of the bliss above. 



Quem tuus amor ebriat, 
Novit quid Jesus sapiat. 
Quam felix est quem satiat ! 
Non est ultra quod cupiat. 



The soul which love eternal warms 
Sinks to rest in Jesus' arms ; 
Happy soul ! thy toils are o'er, 
Thou canst wish and want no more. 



Jesu decus Angelicum, 
In aure dulce canticum, 
In ore mel mirificum, 
In corde nectar ccelicum. 



Joy of angels I Lord of might ; 
Star of Bethlehem, fount of light; 
The eye, the ear, the heart, and soul, 
Find in Thee their common goal. 



Desidero te millies 
Mi Jesu, quando venies? 
Me Isetum quando facies ? 
Me de te cpiando saties ? 



Jesus, Saviour, sinners' friend 
All my sighs to Thee ascend ; 
Perfect joys I find in Thee, 
Streams that flow eternally. 



Jam quod qusesivi video, 
Quod concupivi teneo 
Amore Jesu langueo 
Et corde totus ardeo. 



Now my wants are well supplied, 
All my longings satisfied, 
Kow I burn with love divine ; 
Now I call mv Jesus mine. 



0 beatum incendium, 
Et ai'dens desiderium ! 
0 dulce refrigerium, 
Amare Deum Filium ! 



Blessed flame that burns my di'oss. 
Blessed gain for every loss ; 
Sighing, loving, weeping, blest, 
Pillowed on the Saviour's breast. 



Tu mentis delectatio 
Am oris consummatio, 
Tu mea gloriatio 
Jesu mundi salvatio. 



Ocean depths of endless love, 
Tasted here, enjoyed above; 
Future glory — present grace, 
In Thee, redeemer of our race. 



Tu verum cceII gaudium 
Jesu cordis tripudium, 
ToUent omne fastidium. 



Angel-hosts the anthems raise. 
Thousand voices sound thy praise; 
No more sorrow — no more night 



Mel, nectar, melos suaviimi. Thou their everlasting light. 



MODERN DEISTS. 



205 



Jesu corona Martyriim, 
Et flos perennis virginum ; 
Tu casti cordis lilium, 
Tu decertantis praemium. 
Exaudi preces supplicum 
Nil extra te quserentium. 



Crown of martyrs, great " I am," 
Elower of virgins, dying Lamb ; 
Thou the lily — Thou our rock — 
In Thee we meet the battle's shock. 
Hear us, Lord, and set us free. 
All our joys are placed in Thee. 



Bonn, January bth, 1853. 



v.— MODERN DEISTS. 

It is really melanclioly to contemplate some of tlie sayings, 
doings, and writings of public men in England. The reli- 
gious principle seems to be getting fresh, developments every 
day and hour in that land of liberty and free thought. 
England was the first of the European nations to pro- 
duce a race of Deists, and Englishmen met the enemy on 
the arena of a most noble literature and beat them out of the 
field. The Tindals, Tolands, Chubbs, Shaftesburys, Humes, 
&c., were resolute and formidable antagonists, yet never 
were any literary champions since controversy began, more 
fairly and fully overthrown. The English Deists were 
beaten. 'Now, then, after these infidels are beaten, Germany 
is just beginning to know and read their works. And, lo! 
the old overthrown Deism of England becomes transferred 
into the German mind. The soil is rich and fertile, and 
thousands of that plodding patient race, dig about and dung 
it. Critics, philosophers, and novelists — ^kings, princes, and 
merchants — divines, physicians, and philologists, — all hands 
are at work in schools, colleges, universities, by the pulpit, the 
press, and every other conceivable way, to sow far and wide 
the poisonous seeds which England had weeded from her soil. 
What is the result ? New and strange forms rise up every- 
where, and sport like ephemera in the sun for a day and then 



206 



MODERN DEISTS. 



die. Tlie Pietists, tlie Rationalists, the I^aturalists, tlie fol- 
lowers of Fichte, Kant, and Hegel, tlie Mytliologists or 
Heathens, like Strauss and Banr, and all the contending 
schools of infidelity, are the manifold illegitimate spawn of 
our old English Deism. Strauss is nothing but the English 
deistical argument done into Grerman by a keen and masterly 
unbeliever. One peculiarity of these German productions 
was their h ypocrisy. All pretend to honour the Scripture ; 
all seek only for the right mode of interpretation. Kant 
pretends to hold the doctrines of the German national church, 
and Strauss wiites a deistical work and calls it ^' The Life of 
Christ. But the Germans are not Deists, and the national 
church of Germany is not apostate. These hypocritical, 
deistical writers are now beaten and fully overthrown ; the 
reaction is immense in Germany. I called at three book- 
sellers in Hamburg before I could get a copy of Strauss ; 
and I may say I think that the defences of Christianity, and 
apologies for the Bible, which the "Leben Jesus " has called 
forth, have never been excelled in depth of research and 
masterly argument, l^ow, however, that the Germans have 
done with, these men, some in England seem willing to take 
them up. Such writers as Carlyle and Newman, and Parker 
and Greg and Martineau, are rising to the surface of the 
dark and troubled sea, and rejecting a personal God, or dis- 
believing in a future state, or pleading for a sufficient light 
within. They seem to glory in everything that can assimi- 
late the nature of man to that of the brutes. Yet their cant 
is more intolerable than their infidelity. They quote Scrip- 
ture, speak of conscience, spiritualism, and sighs and sorrows 
of the soul, reminding you of a methodist class-meeting. 
Miserable men ! Ye mil not degrade conscience to the 
standard of the Scripture ! If the blind lead the blind, both 



JESUS THE HOME OF THE HEART. 



207 



will fall into tlie ditcli. Let them alone. Contempt is tlie 
best reply to such presmnption. 

Bonn, January Qth, 1853. 



VI.— JESUS THE HOME OF THE HEAET. 

Mary, my child, there is one above. 
One whom the saiiits and angels love; 
Heavenly harps the anthem raise, 
And little children lisp his praise. 

Who is He ? 0 tell me His name, 
Was He not horn in Bethlehem? 
O tell me what and where is He, 
And has He a place in his heart for me? 

He is the truth, the life, and the way, 
The star by night, and the sun by day, 
The light without, and the light within, 
To guide thy feet from the way of sin. 

The lion is He, and the gentle lamb. 
The virgin's son, and the great " I am;" 
He is the home of the weary breast ; 
The sinner's friend and the pilgrim's rest. 

He is all that is lovely, and good, and true, 
He is life and salvation to me and you ; 
And we, my child, to share his grace, 
Must humbly wait in Mary's place. 

0 Lord, send fortli Tliy light and Thy truth, and let them 
be our guides. Arm Thy faithful ministers and missionaries 
with strength, and gird them for the battle of truth and holi- 
ness. Open the hearts of many Jews and Gentiles to receive 



208 



A MEDITATION ON GOD. 



the trutlL of Thy holy Gospel, and let the time soon come 
when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 



YII.— THE MAJESTY AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

{From Augustine s Confessions) 

0, my Grod, what art Thou ? and what do I desire besides 
Thee ? Or who is Grod except our God ? Highest, best, most 
powerful, most omni]3otent, most merciful, most just, most inscru- 
table and most intimately present, most beautiful, most firm; sta- 
ble and incomprehensible ; unchangeable, changing all things ; 
never young and never old ; renewing all things, yet bringing 
the proud to destruction, and they know it not ; ever acting, yet 
never moving ; collecting, yet needing nothing ; bearing, 
filling, and protecting all ; creating, nourishing, and perfect- 
ing all ; seeking much when there is nothing wanting to 
Thee. 

Thou art full of love, yet without passion ; most zealous, yet 
^T.thout care; Thou repentest, yet hast no grief; Thou art 
angry, yet unmoved; Thou changest Thy works but not Thy 
council ; Thou receivest what Thou findest and losest nothing ; 
Thou hast all, and yet rejoicest in gain ; never avaricious, yet 
Thou exactest usmy; Thou spendest beyond measure that 
Thou shouldst be in debt, and yet who has anything that is 
not Thine ? Thou payest Thy debts, and yet owest nothing ; 
Thou givest what is due, and becomest nothing the poorer ; 
and what shall we say, O my God ! my life, my holy joy ? 
or what can any one say when he speaks of Thee ? Yet woe 
to them that are silent concerning Thee ; herefore the 
eloquent are mute when they think of Thee. 

January ItJi, 1853. 



THE TRANSFIGURATION. 



209 



Vni.— TRANSFIGURATIO. 

Matt. xvii. 1 — 8. 

Remotus Salvatorem mons 
Accepit cum discipulis, 
Aperta erat lucis fons 
Sanctisque et coelicolis. 

Fulgente amictus nube 
Coelo terraque amatus 
Stetit ut in hora tubae 
Stabit judex expectatus 

Vox omnipotensis Dei, 
Suum Filium confirmavit 
Hie est fons humanae spei 
Hie amorem nuntiabit. 

Gloria in excel sis Deo, 
Reconciliatus homo ; 
Nobiscum Deus ! nos cum Deo, 
Semper in coelesti domo ! 

Jesus hominum salvator, 
Gloria Dei circumdatus, 
Jesus hominum amator, 
Nunc et semper sit amatus ! 

THE TRANSFIGURATION. Matt. xvii. 1—8. 

Into a mountain far apart 
The Saviour led his chosen three ; 
With trembling hopes and beating heart, 
They go his royal state to see. 

In glory sphered, his radiant face 
Emits the beams of heavenly light. 
Begirt with majesty and grace. 
Nor sun nor star hath form so bright ! 

P 



201 



INQUIRING AFTER GOD. 



Is this the weak, the weary man, 
Whose voice was tenderness and love ; 
Or is it not the great " I am," 
Enrobed in glory from above ? 

0 love, how sweet ! O love, how strong, 
Here with our king still let us stay ! 
The night of weeping, dark and long. 
Breaks into everlasting day. 

The Father gives approval sweet ; 
The Son in radiant glory stands ; 
Men and immortals at his feet 
Attendant wait their king's commands. 

Hail, Prince of life ! in glory now. 
The king whom earth and heaven adore ; 
Our joy, our hope, our shepherd thou, 
And we thy flock for evermore! 

Bonn, January 8th, 1853. 



IX.— WHERE IS HE TO BE FOUND ? 

Where art Thou, 0 my God, that I may speak with Thee ? 
My soul longs after thy presence, and cannot find Thee. 
Thou art shut from my heart by the thick veil of flesh, and 
I feel after Thee in vain. I follow after Thee, 0 Lord, and 
Thou retirest before me, so that I can never reach Thee ! I 
ask my heart, "Where art Thou?" I look to the sun, moon, 
and stars, but they are silent ! There is no voice from Thee. 
0 my God, I would enter the curtain and converse with 
Thee ! I would know, hear, and be with Thee, the source of 
knowledge and power. Who shall purify and enlarge the 
house of my heart, that Thou shouldst come in and dwell 



THE PROTESTAJfTS OF HUNGARY. 



211 



there ? To Thee I cry, 0 my God, my holy joy, my strength, 
and my E-edeemer. I know Thee not, I feel Thee not, I 
comprehend Thee not, but my fond heart would fain feel 
after Thee, and darkly, blindly, adore and praise Thee. 0 
my God, knowledge cannot reach Thee. 

Bonn, January 8th, 1853. 



X.— THE PEOTESTANTS OF HUNGARY. 

The Austrian goyernment seems bent on oppressing the 
Hungarian Church to the uttermost ; formerly the most of 
the high nobility were Protestants, but many, if not most 
of these, have returned to the Papacy. The Protestants are 
three milKons in number, and even in the darkest, cruellest 
periods of Austrian tyranny, were respected in their ancient 
rights and liberties. They had fifty high schools or gym- 
nasia, where the youth were educated for the universities, 
and in all the German universities there were and are 
stipendia for the free education of a large number of Hun- 
garians. The Austrian government will no longer allow a 
foreign education, and to prevent it has erected a theological 
faculty in Yienna. This faculty is declared to be less than 
worthless. So says Professor Dorner of this place. All these 
fifty schools must now come under the regulations of govern- 
ment, and the high schools, which cannot guarantee twelve 
masters, and the lower schools, which cannot guarantee six, 
must fall to the ground, while the Jesuits are ready to occupy 
immediately the abandoned place. These Hungarians are a 
noble race, and deserve the sympathy of the whole Protestant 
world. The Protestants were less implicated than the 
Catholics in the late Hungarian rebellion, and now all their 
former privileges (few in number, indeed,) must be removed 

p 2 



212 



THE MADIAI. 



from them. They were and are shut out from their Pro- 
testant brethren ; they were and are snrroimded with violent, 
bigoted enemies, and it is little wonder that indifference and 
rationalism should prevail more or less among them. This is 
the case, and no man can lament or confess it with greater 
sorrow than I, but there are many symptoms that the Church 
is not dead ; her life is in her, and requires only to be fanned 
into a flame. Is there no noble-minded Haldane to be found, 
who could devote his Kfe and fortune to such a worthy enter- 
prise ? Three millions of our brethren form a wide enough 
field to work in. I am persuaded that the present regulations 
of the government will end in the deeper degeneracy or final 
extinction of that ancient Protestant Church. 

Professor Dorner besought me to take a journey to Hun- 
gary, to visit them, and give a report on their condition. I 
answered that I had no time, and without an order from the 
Church I could not take such a step. 

Bonn, January IQth, 1853. 



XI.— THE PEESECUTION OF THE MADIAI; MAKES OF THE 

CHUKCH. 

The Madiai are reported to be dead, or at least one of 
them, in a prison of Tuscany ; the Grand Duke did not yield 
to the entreaties of the Protestant world. The ofience of 
these two, the husband and the wife, was that they read a 
Bible and Prayer-book in their own house; they had, and 
read the Bible. This was their offence. They were not 
missionaries, they were not English, but Tuscans. They made 
no uproar, they made no sect — they read and retained the 
Bible. This was their crime, and this the Pope, and the 



MARKS OF THE CHURCH. 



213 



Popish gOYernment, cannot bear. Hence we ask the question, 
What are the notes of the true church ? 

I. That the ministers of that church should be the suc- 
cessors of the twelve apostles. The succession is known by 
the following wmrA^s ; — (1.) To hate and persecute to the death, 
all that will read the Bible (Dan. vii. 8, 21 ; Rev. xi. 7 ; xiii. 
7 ; xvii. 14; xix. 19). (2.) Grreat luxury, splendour, state, ser- 
vants, carriages, palaces, the colour scarlet, a mouth speaking 
great things (Dan. vii. 8) ; these are all true marks of the 
true successors of the apostles. (3.) Pride, arrogance, and igno- 
rance are also real marks. (4.) The apostles spoke in strange 
tongues, and their successors use a language that the people do 
not understand (Acts ii. 7, 8). (5.) G-enerally speaking, you 
can find also in the successors of the apostles apostolic 
doctrines ; such as — 1st. That there is one God and many 
mediators (1 Tim. ii. 5). 2nd. That Ave are to worship the 
saints and angels (Col. ii, 18). 3rd. That we are to be pu- 
rified from our sins by the fires of purgatory (1 John i, 7). 
4th. That we are to take refuge in the name, power, and 
protection of the Virgin Mary (Acts iv. 12). 

II. Another sign of the true church is her saints; these 
are various and numerous. (1.) The holy popes are the best 
examples of apostolic saints ; they are poor, they are modesty 
their sufferings are great ; they give all away, and Pius IX. 
gave his dear children a gift of French cannon-balls ; they 
love the Bible, they preach liberty to the captives, such as 
the Madiais, in the Inquisition and elsewhere ; in fact, there 
is no such line of saints as the holy popes — they are the best 
examples of true liberty, love, and all sorts of self-denial. 
(2.) The Jesuits are a noble band of saints ; their duplicity 
is really more than apostolic. 

III. There is another sign of the true church — viz., she 
must be scriptural. This is true of the Papacy. Its name is 



MARKS OF THE CHmCH. 



in Scripture (Hey. xvii. 5) ; tlie luune, office, and character of 
her king, ruler, and guide are in Scripture (2 Thes. ii. 3). 
Tlie state, majesty, and glory of lier Head and Sovereign 
are described in Scriptiu^e (2 Thes. ii. 4) (Joe Geoc) 5 love 
of tlie tri'fJi, liis niir acidoiis p oarers, the time of his reign, 
are all clearly dejDicted in the Holy Scriptui^e (2 Thes. ii. 
9, 11 ; EcT. xiii. 13 ; xix. 21). This true chiu-ch must have 
a visible head ; must worship the hosts of heaven ; must have 
one apostle to supply the place of twelve, and he the one 
who denied his Lord ; must adore a wafer. She has wonder- 
fid powers ; she can make vice virtue and virtue vice, can 
create her creator, and then devoutly eat him, in the form of 
a morsel of bread. She can sanctify a man by merely put- 
ting robes upon him, place such men as Xaj)oleon Buonaparte 
among the saints of Heaven, can give indidgences in all 
kinds of sin, and yet retain the name of Holy Cathohc and 
Apostolic, and can open pm^gatory by means of money. 

Xo{)(70c avoLysL TTavra Kai —v\ac a^ov. 

And the Eomans, ancient and modern, have a noble and 
convenient proverb — " Omnia venalia Eomae.^' Pay your 
" obolus," ye miserable wretches, and get to Heaven at once. 
See, Peter holds the keys, and as you put your hand into 
yom- pocket he begins to turn. Pay, and make no excuses, 
as the heathen shades did to old Charon — ttwc a-o^cJ ovk 
f )^a>i' ? These are the marks of the true church, and truly 
they are wonderfid. Blessed is he that belongs to the true 
chui-'ch, if he be rich ; but the ovk f wakens the sleeping 
Cerberus, and throws a cloud over the benignant faces of 
Peter and the Pope. 



January Mth, 1853. 



A LETTER FROM HTJjN'GARY. 



215 



XII.— A LETTEE FROM HUNGARY. 

" OberscTiutzen, December IS, 1852, 

" Mj dear Sir, 

" I feel compelled, before tlie end of tlie year, to tiirn 
to your true and sjTnpatliising heart, in order to mitigate my 
own troubles and anxieties. Some months before the meet- 
ing of the Grustavus Adolphus Society, I wrote letters to 
Leipsic, and other places, but have hitherto receiyed no bro- 
therly word in answer to them all. This is to me the more 
distressing, as the situation of affairs here is becoming daily 
worse and worse. What I from the first expected has now, 
with too doleful certainty, come to pass. The regulations of 
which you haye heard, and which destroy utterly the cen- 
tralisation necessary to the very existence of the Protestant 
church in Hungary, haye come upon her in a time and 
situation which still more increase the annihilating power of 
these fatal ordinances. Dm^ing the last two years there has 
been literally nothing done which could build up the church, 
or eyen impede the fearful progress of her hastening disso- 
lution. We have receiyed no word of warning or encou- 
ragement from the chief pastors and superintendents, whose 
abundant circulars bring nothing but commands, which refer 
only to unpolitical and trifling externals. There has ap- 
peared no Christian eyangelical miion of effort, scarcely 
eyen any important earnest indiyidual acti^^ty which could 
strengthen and yiyify one's fainting courage. The affairs 
of the schools, of which you haye heard, remain in the same 
lamentable condition as before ; instead of anything like 
organisation, the goyernment school system is becoming more 
and more perplexed, is leading us daily to greater disunion. 
Except our single school (that in Oberschiitzen), no Pro- 
testant seminary has obtained the sanction of the goyern- 



216 



A LETTER FROM HUNGARY. 



ment ; by tlie regulations of the state, a circular is to be 
sent to the magistrates, by which the children of all Pro- 
testant schools (except ours in Oberschiitzen) are made liable 
to be enlisted into the imperial army. You can easily ima- 
gine how these long threatened measures, which we fondly 
hoped would never be carried into execution, should drive 
our gro^^Ti-up children, in mass, into the fully sanctioned 
and privileged Catholic schools ; and when we bring these 
melancholy facts, and lamentable condition of the church, 
before those who have most influence in her, we soon discover 
that they are very far indeed from recognising the real source 
of the evil. Your highness can imagine how the heart of 
him must be exercised who knows both the evil and the 
means to cure it ; but who, standing alone, must confess the 
utter insufficiency of his power in reference to the inmiense 
difficulty of the occasion ; and especially in a time when the 
Protestant church deems active and earnest measures neces- 
sary against her hereditary enemy, even in places where she 
is superior to her adversary as to numbers, wealth, and in- 
telligence. 

" I cannot deny that, during the last half year, the thought 
has often occurred to me that I, also, should remove from 
this place, and seek some sphere of operation where so gi- 
gantic impediments might not oppose my work ; but then, I 
think, he is no brave soldier who retires from battle when the 
heavy guns begin to play. At the same time, the Lord of 
the church shows forth his power in the midst of us with 
wonderful manifestations of his love. Our schools increase 
and multi]3ly with unanticipated rapidity. From sabbath 
to sabbath the church [in Oberschiitzen, where the writer is 
pastor] is becoming more and more crowded, so that we must 
enlarge the building, although we have a service every day 
of the week, and two on Sunday. The church in Ober- 



A LETTER FROM HUNGARY. 217 

schiitzen scarcely numbers 1,300 souls, yet I will venture to 
assert, no cliurcli in Europe brings nobler offerings of libe- 
rality and love for schools, cburcli purposes, and benevolent 
objects in general. With 8,000 gulden (800/.) we com- 
menced this spring, a building estimated at 30,000 ; we our- 
selves can hardly comprehend how it was, but the building 
is nearly finished. God has wonderfully assisted us. We 
have, indeed, still a debt of nearly 20,000 gulden, and we 
hope that our brethren in the faith will assist us in this 
matter. I must, however, confess that I have always found in 
this church such earnestness, alacrity, and steadfastness as 
can rest on the word of God alone, ' I will never leave them, 
nor forsake them.' Sir, lay to heart the condition of your 
Hungarian brethren ; lay it upon the hearts of others ; come 
vigorously to our help, for the last fearful decisive moment 
hangs over the heads of four millions of your Protestant 
brethren in this land. Let it be the work of the evening of 
your life to make your influential position the means of 
saving and blessing so considerable a part of the Protestant 
church of Europe. Lift up your voice for us — a voice which 
millions will hear with joy. 

" Once more let me recommend to your love, also, the poor 
church of Schmieclraidh. There we have at last succeeded in 
getting a roof on the church and the school-house ; the 
walls of both had sufiered much from the weather. Seek, 
beloved brother, to direct the sympathies of your brethren 
to the state of this poor church. I conclude this letter with 
a heavy but hoping heart ; and I shall encourage the thought 
that you will refresh us with a consolatory and sympathising 
answer. Accept, my beloved friend, my best wishes, and 
remember me kindly to your dear family. 

Yours truly, 

F. L. KUHNE.'' 

January \7th, 1853. 



# 



218 WHOM THE GODS LOVE DIE YOUNG. 

XIII. — ''Ov re Osol (jyiXsovai, vtav'i(TKO(; r^Xevra. 

The sentiment of Scripture is quite different, and is based 
on tlie principle tliat life is a blessing, and that death in all its 
forms is the triumph of the enemy and the completion of the 
curse. One of the ten commandments is enforced with the 
promise of long life. The death of young people, and especially 
of children, is the fullest and most melancholy evidence 
that the whole structure of our nature is deranged, and the 
whole fountain of our being poisoned and polluted at its source. 
Christianity is the religion of life, and teaches us to value the 
one we have, and anticipate the one to come. Hence in un- 
christian and heathen lands, life is little cared for by the 
public laws. The value of the soul and its expectations for 
the future being known, it is natural that we should attend to 
the means of improving and adorning it. Heathenism presents 
no object worth living for before our minds, and hence life 
loses its value, and man approximates the brute creation. It 
is no doubt better to die young than live long in the service 
of sin and the wicked world ; but death is rarely present to 
the minds of the healthy, and where it is so I believe 
it is always painful, for of all things known to the soul of man 
the most dreadful and disagreeable is death. It is the last 
enemy that is to be destroyed, and come as it may we con- 
template it as an enemy and never as a friend : as a great 
evil which we will bear and triumph over for the sake of the 
glories beyond it. The means of its reaching us is sin, and 
the author of it is the devil, and the abolisher of it is the Son 
of Grod, who came to destroy the works of the devil ; and the 
cold clammy touch of it is only tolerable because we believe 
in one who is the resurrection and the life. Is it not our 
duty to meditate constantly on death ? By no means, dearly 



AMBROSIUS' EASTER HYMN. 



219 



beloved, except you intend to become altogether gbostly and 
melancboly. No, set your affections on things above, tliink of 
tbe Father Almighty, who draws you by his love — on the 
risen and glorified Redeemer, the conqueror at the heavenly 
throne — on the Holy Ghost, the quickener, the Lord and giver 
of life — on the triumphs of the martyrs, on the zeal of the 
apostles, on the certain victory of faith. By so doing the 
heart becomes cheerful and thoughtful, composed and resolute, 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Resurrection, and 
not death, is the hope of the church, and the more we con- 
template the final triumph of the Redeemer, the more shall 
we be penetrated with his mind and spirit. And if it helps 
your devotions, sing with Saint Ambrosius over the victory 
of the Redeemer, 

HYMNUS PASCHALIS. 

Aurora luce rutilat, 
Coelum laudibus intonat, 
Mundus exultans jubilat 
Gemens infernus ululat. 

Cum rex ille fortissimus 
Mortis confractis viribus 
Pede conculcans tartara 
Solvit a poena miseros. 

Ille qui clausus lapide 
Custoditur sub milite, 
Triumph aiis pompa nobili 
Victor surgit de funere. 

Solutis jam gemitibus 
Et inferni doloribus, 
" Quia surrexit Dominus" 
Eesplendens clamat angelus. 



220 



THE VICTORY THAT OVERCOMETH THE WORLD. 



OSTERLIED. 

Des liolden Tages Schein erglimmt 
Zu seinem Preis der Hiinmel stimmt, 
Die Holle lieult, da sie ihn schaut, 
Aufhiipft die Welt undjiibelt laut 

Des starken Konigs Siegerschaft 
Bewaltigte des Todes Kraft ; 
Sein Fuss zertrat der Holle Thor 

Und die Gefauguen geli n hervor. ■« 

Den eingesargt im Felsenschaclit 
Ein Haufen Soldner hielt bewacht, 
Er schwang sie auf aus Grabesnacht 
-Wie Morgenlicht in Siegespracht. 

Hellglanzend reif ein Engel aus ; 
Bezwungen ist der Holle Graus ; 
All irdish Leid ist abgestellt, 
Erstanden bist du, Herr der Welt I 

Raise up your thoughts and affections to Him, the prince 
of life and conqueror of your enemies, and in seeing his 
triumph you become victorious, for are we not members of his 
flesh and of his bones ? His life, death, ascension, and glory, 
are all ours as soon as we believe, and the less you trouble 
your heart about other things, and the more you make Him 
the centre of your affections, the more certainly and gloriously 
shall you serve and glorify your creator here and in the world 
to come. " This is the victory that overcometh the world, even 
your faith.'' 

Bonn, January 19i/i, 1853. 



THE FRUITFUL VINE. 



221 



XIV.— nnH) ISJID '^n^i^ Ps. cxxvm. the feuitful vine. 

A large family, especially if sons, is considered tlie greatest 
blessing in the East. It was so among tlie ancient Jews 
(Gen. xxxiii. 5, xlviii. 9 ; Ps. cxxvii. 3 ; Is. viii. 13.) The 
Arabs describe the superabundant good fortune of a family- 
man by the proverb — 

" She is in the family way, she is giving suck, and before 
her are four." After we had passed the Jordan and came 
among the wandering Arabs, we were constantly appealed to 
by the sechildren of the desert for receipts and prescriptions 
to procure children. Twins, if both males, are considered 
in Damascus the height of good fortune, but if daughters, the 
entire family is filled with consternation, and the father is 
overwhelmed with grief ! This explains Jer. xx. 15, and John 
xvi. 21. Indeed the Jewish customs are the customs of the 
East at the present time. The desire for children, the way of 
carrying them (on the side, breast, and shoulder), the mode of 
managing and bringing them up, all remain as they were in 
the days of old. (Gen xxi. 8 ; Is. xlix. 22.) Household Facts 
in Moslem countries : — 1. The wife is chosen, not for her 
intelligence, virtue, or accomplishments, but simply for her 
beauty — ^hence a slave from the market is as good as any other. 
2. Even in Moslem houses, where the husband is the sole 
ruler and autocrat, four wives, with their slaA^es and children, 
make occasionally a little stormy weather, as I have heard in 
Damascus. 3. The husband can divorce the wife without 
ceremony or cause assigned, except ^jc^ j^-^^ ^ CLa'A. This 
is, however, very little disgrace, and she is married again 
in a few days. Thus they shift till those meet who suit each 
other. 4. Obedience is the great dogma of the East ; the wife 



222 ARCHITECTURE. 

obeys, tlie son obeys, the slave obeys, tbe subject obeys. This 
is both the law and the practice. Hence liberty, discussion, 
independence, &c. are not needed, and not known. 

Bonn, January 20th, 1853, 



XV.— ARCHITECTUKE. 

The pyramid, the arch, and the carpentry in stone are the 
types, not only of various ages, but of the various nations 
and natural characters. Look at Egypt with its pyramids, 
sphynxes, obelisks ; at Syria with its massive ruins at Jerusalem, 
Baalbek and Deir el Kulla — the most massive and gigantic, 
perhaps, in existence, and you can easily imagine something 
of the times, characters, and feelings which produced them. 
These were the times of brute force, stolid, stupid, unques- 
tioning obedience, when the many kissed the dust before the 
one ; slavery, tyranny of the most brutal kind, brutality, 
hard labour, Baal worship, gross materialism, characterise 
all the seras of colossal architecture in all nations ; bulk 
takes the place of beauty, force overpowers the idea of form. 

Look at the Colosseum in Rome. It is the type, the image, 
the very picture of that great conquering nation. It is built 
for all time, the most massive, the most durable ever built 
by human hands. See those walls, those eternal arches of 
Eoman bricks, towering on high gigantically towards heaven, 
and you have an idea of a strong ruling conquering race ; 
their power terrible, their wealth enormous, their conceptions 
simple, but terrifically sublime and energetic. So speak all 
their public works — their temples, their bridges, their roads, 
their baths, and their palaces. There is no variety, no play- 
ful imagination, no artistic combinations of form, beauty, 



TRACTS. 



223 



arrangement, proportion, harmony — there is simplicity, 
durability, majesty, and strength. Such was the nation ; an 
iron race, breaking and stamping the earth under their feet 
(Dan. vii. 7). Simple, earnest, of few ideas, but these clear, 
definite, and deep-rooted. Such was Rome. 

Look at Athens and the ruins of the Greeks. How different ! 
You read at once subtilty, calculation, harmonious propor- 
tion, the wisdom of Minerva and the elegance of the Graces. 
There is nothing massive ; the noblest Grecian temples are 
small ; not bulk but beauty, not strength but ideal elegance, 
reveals the character of that crafty, imaginative, lying, phi- 
losophical people. Genius is written immortally on all the 
mortal remains of that wonderful classic and thinking race. 
Rome is the history of force, Greece of thought, and thus the 
two heathen historical nations, like the body and soul in one 
living man, were necessary to the civilisation of the world. 
The three historical nations are Rome, Greece, and Jeru- 
salem. In the first we trace the development of action, in 
the second the speculations of philosophy, and in the third, 
you are led at every step to contemplate the majesty and cha- 
racter of God. Thus we are led from the outward to the 
inward, and from that to the Creator ; and matter, mind, and 
God, become the types of the progressive development and 
civilisation of the human race. 

Bonn, January 21st, 1853. 



XVI.— TEACTS. 

The distribution of tracts has been very great during this 
month, and the consequences seem to be great and serious. 
About three thousand tracts of an earnest, awakening, if not 



224 



QUESTIONS FOR THE POPE. 



of a controversial kind, have been freely given out among 
Jews and Papists. The priests are furious, and, like the old 
Baal-worshippers, leave nothing undone to show their zeal 
against the true servants of the one God and the one Medi- 
ator. Sometimes they tell the people that none dare have 
the Bible at all ; then that only those of thirty years of age 
or more are to be trusted with that dangerous book, when the 
confessor allows it ; then all the Protestant Bibles are false, 
corrupt, and heretical. We are denounced from the altars, 
our tracts and books condemned, the people warned against 
our houses, books, and schools. Such was the Papacy and 
such it is. 1st. They admit and allow all reading of a light 
and frivolous kind, novels, romances, stories, monkish legends, 
miracles done by monks, images, pictures, relics, &c. They 
may read all the abominations of a perverted and demoralised 
and demoralising Kterature, all the immoralities of this and 
other ages, anything, everything, only the Book of God 
not. This is a true mark of the true church to keep the 
Word of God from God's children. 

January 27th, 1853. 



XVIL— SERIOUS QUESTIONS FOR THE POPE. 

1st. How do you clear yourself from the suspicions cast 
upon you in the following passages of Scripture ? 2 Thess. 
ii. 4_10 ; 1 Tim. iv. 1, 3 ; 2 Pet. ii. 1, 3 (see Heb. x.) ; 
Rev. xvii. 6, 5; and xviii. 9. 

2nd. How does it come to pass that, when your rule was in 
its fullest, most glorious vigour, the world was in the grossest 
ignorance, barbarism, and tyranny? 

3rd. Is ignorance the true sign of infallibility? Know- 
ledge increased as your rule decayed, and diminished as your 
power strengthened. 



QUESTIONS FOR THE POPE. 



225 



4tli. Is it owing to your infallibility that Italy, Spain, 
Portugal, and Austria, are so much superior as men, citizens, 
and Christians, to England, Grermany, and America ? 

5th. The Pope and the Popish bishops alone can confer 
the gifts of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. How 
then does it come that the lands where they have the most 
power, have the least of these gifts ? Can not your infalKble 
Pope do as much for Italy as the old heathen emperors did? 

6th. How does it come to pass that you give indulgence to 
Sabbath-breaking, profanation, and all conceivable violations 
of the law of Grod, while you make indifferent actions, as 
eating meat on Fridays, withholding honour from winking 
dolls and statues, &c., as grievous punishable transgressions? 
Is the law of Jehovah no rule for you? 

7th. TeU me, if you please, what power is described under 
the symbol of Babylon, Pev. x^di. ? It has the following 
characteristics: — 1st. She must be a harlot. 2nd. She must 
be a great harlot ; no common strumpet, but a bold, brazen- 
faced, imperious harlot. 3rd. The kings of the earth must 
be her paramours, such as the kings of Spain, Austria, and 
Portugal, for example. 4th. The scarlet colour must pre- 
vail in her attire. 5th. She must be very rich, and decked 
out with great show and splendour. 6th. She must be full 
of blasphemy against the truth. Word, and character of God. 
7th. She must be drmik mth the blood of the saints and 
martyrs of Grod. 8th. She must be a mysterious power, 
claiming the power of mystery, miracle, and prophecy — 
power over the present, the past, and the future — ^power over 
heaven, earth, and hell, and yet nobody can or dare ask 
where this mysterious power lies ! 

'Wlien you have explained these seven questions, I shall be 
prepared to ask your holiness seven more. 



226 



THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN HUNGARY. 



FEBEUARY. 

I. The Protestants of Hungary. II. The Prophetic Aspect of Christ's mi- 
nistry. III. 'ApVLov, 'Ajuvoc — 1Dy2' I'V'- The Character of the Ancient 
Eomans. V. German Professors ; their Character. VI. Jesus the Ark of 
the Soul. VII. 'AyaTT// ; Questions for the Pope. VIII. 6 vIoq tov 
'ArdpMTTOv ; the Brother. IX. De Nativitate Domini. 



I.~THE PKOTESTANT CHUECH IN HUNGAKY. 

"■Bonn, Jan. 3, 1853. 
" You have heard no doubt of the dangers which threaten 
the Evangelical Church of Hungary ; and the cry for help 
which breaks upon our ears from that suffering Church, 
claims the sympathy of a Hollander, so much the more as it 
reminds him of the former oppression of the Protestant 
faith, and the noble act of assistance which his forefathers 
rendered to that separated and suffering member of the 
Reformed Church. It is known how gladly the reformation 
of the sixteenth century was welcomed in Hungary ; how for 
a time the victory was decided in favour of the reformation, 
and only rendered doubtfal again by a counter-reformation, 
which the Jesuits commenced in craft, and ended in desola- 
tion and blood; that, nevertheless, the majority of the nobility 
in the first half of the seventeenth century were evangelical ; 
yes, even in the middle of the eighteenth century, at least 
the half of the Hungarian population belonged to the Evan- 
gelical Church. It is, however, equally well known, that 
the treaty of peace at Yienna, 1606, and at Lintz, 1645, 
which secured the Protestants full religious liberty, was by 
the perverse interpretation of the apparently innocent clause, 



THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN HUNGARY. 227 

' Sine prejudicio religionis Catliolicae/ in the document 
itself, made perfectly useless, nay, even turned into a weapon 
of attack against tlie Protestant religion. It is not forgotten 
in Protestant lands how many hundreds of churches were 
at different times taken from their brethren of the faith in 
Hungary; how the terrors of death, imprisonment, and 
desolation were suspended over them ; how their ranks were 
thinned through flattery, bribery, and seduction, and especially 
the ranks of the nobility, who represented and imited them ; 
how, in the persecution of the Church, from 1671 to 1681, 
hundreds of evangelical ministers and teachers were removed 
from their offices, banished, or even more severely punished. 
Then it was that the Dutch hero, De E-uyter, appearing before 
Naples, 1676, set at liberty thirty evangelical ministers, who 
were brought to the galleys. The continual persecution of the 
Hungarian Church, went universally to the heart of all the 
Evangelical Churches, who found themselves in a better po- 
sition. Many evangelical lands founded stipendia at the Ger- 
man and Dutch universities, for Hungary and Siebenbiirgen, 
in order to preserve the evangelical faith; and during times 
which we often at present look back upon as barbarous and 
intolerant, the Austrian government never ventured to prevent 
attendance at these foreign imiversities, nor to circumscribe 
in this respect the liberty of its subjects. This was and is of 
double importance to the Evangelical Church, inasmuch as she 
is conscious that her strength lies in the purity of her evan- 
gelical doctrine. It was reserved for the present century, 
yes, even for the last years before 1848, to witness the 
tyranny of Austria, in forbidding the Hungarians to attend 
these foreign universities, by which one of the strongest 
bonds has been broken, which hitherto had bound the Evan- 
gelical Church in general to her Hungarian brethren. For 
a number of years the Hungarians have been forbidden the 

q2 



228 



THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN HUNGARY. 



enjoyment of these ' stipendia,' to whicli tliey have a full 
right. The miserable theological institutions in Austria, 
itself, to which the Church was directed, could only be an 
apparent compensation for so great a loss. There remained 
still one institution in Hungary which held the EvangeKcal 
Church together, and secured the advantages of a literary 
education. They had a great number of gymnasia (academies), 
fully sanctioned by the state, having the right of preparing 
young men for the universities, freedom from military 
service, and all other privileges of public recognised semi- 
naries. The number of these high schools in Hungary and 
Siebenbiirgen until 1849, was about 50 : at present aU these 
are threatened with destruction by a single blow. 'A 
system of school education in Austria' (now having the 
force of law), which now lies before us, ordains as follows : — 
Section viii. Public and private gymnasia. 1st. The gym- 
nasia are either public or private. 2nd. The public give 
testimonials which the state recognises ; they have the right 
to prepare and send young men to the universities ; and the 
coimcil of public gymnasia can send them candidates to fulfil 
their year of trial (viz. : each teacher must teach a year in 
one of these, before he is chosen to a school (gymnasium) 
sanctioned by the state). The state determines whether the 
gymnasium is public or private. This shall be regulated by 
the guarantees which the schools can give for the performance 
of their future duties. 3rd. All gymnasia which are not 
public are private. The students in these schools, in order 
to obtain legally sanctioned testimonials of being qualified to 
enter the universities, must undergo an examination at one 
of the public gymnasia. Section Ixxviii. 3. Private academies 
have not the right of gi^dng testimonials for universities ; 
they must send their scholars to one of the pubKc academies 
to be examined. In order to obtain testimonials for the 



THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN HUNGARY. 229 

universities, all tlie scholars of tlie sarae private academy 
must apply for examination at tlie same public one. Sect. 
Ixxxvii. As tax for tliese testimonials, the scholars from 
private have three times as much to pay as those from public 
academies. Sect. Ixxxviii. The effect of these testimonials ; 
only through these has any one the right to attend uni- 
versities, or faculties of theology as ordinary hearers, as well 
as the right to acquire those further privileges, which such a 
course of study takes for granted (viz. : exemption from mili- 
tary service, liberty of becoming pastors, teachers, physicians, 
&c.). These testimonials are to be presented before the 
students can obtain a right to any stipendia (bursaries) ; when 
they come to the examination, which the university requires 
before entrance ; when they wish for promotion ; when they 
wish to acquire the right of citizenship ; and finally, when 
they enter for the first time into the service of the state. Sect. 

ii. The erection of academies. No school may take the name 
of gymnasium or academy, which has not in all essential 
points followed the prescribed regulations of the law. Sect. 

iii. 1. Every man has a right to erect academies. 2. For 
the opening of it, the sanction of the minister of public in- 
struction is necessary, and he must be satisfied that the means 
are provided for the support of the institution, for a number 
of years, at least, with a high degree of probability, and that 
the principles of the institution are in accordance with the 
law. 3. The state can at any time close the academy when 
the requirements of the law are violated. Sect. ix. The 
academies, which are altogether, or, for the most part, sup- 
ported by the state, are state- academies. 2. The academies 
which do not belong to the state, are to be supported (with 
or without government assistance) by the associations or 
societies, or individuals whose academies they are. The 
supporters of such institutions have the right to require 



230 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN HUNGARY. 

school-money from the scholars, to be applied to the support 
of the schools. Sec. x. Along with the state academies, 
bishops, clerical associations, lay-unions, other societies or 
individuals, have the right to support the academies that 
exist as heretofore, or to erect new ones. Sect. xi. 1. To 
the public academies at present existing, belong a) all the 
state academies ; b) those episcopal academies, and academies 
of clerical and lay corporations, or of individual persons whose 
testimonials have hitherto been accepted as legal in the 
academies and universities of the Imperial royal hereditary 
states, as soon as they shall have complied with the require- 
ments of the present law. 2. a) The ministry have the 
right to take from the academies which do not belong to the 
state, the privilege of sending young men to universities, and 
all other privileges when they deem it necessary for the good 
of the rising generation, which is committed to their (the 
ministry's) care. Sect. iv. The complete academy consists of 
eight classes, in each of which the scholars must remain one 
year. The upper academy consists of four, the under also 
of four, and these together make the complete gymnasium. 
According to Sect, vii., under academies may exist without 
upper ones, but not the reverse. Sect, xciii. (1.) The amount 
of instruction communicated requires in the complete gym- 
nasium (Sect, xviii.) twelve regular masters, and in the under 
g5rm.nasium, six regular masters. The European languages 
are necessarily included in this course of instruction. (2.) 
One of these masters is the director of the institution. (3.) The 
director in the complete gymnasium must give weekly from 
eight to ten lessons, and in the under gymnasium from ten 
to fourteen weekly lessons ; other teachers may not be com- 
pelled to give more than twenty lessons in the week. Sect, 
xviii. The course of instruction. (1.) Religion. (2.) Lan- 
guages. A. Latin. B. Greek, c. JSTative language, d. Lan- 



> 



THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN HUNGARY. 231 

guage of the crown-lands, along witli the native language. 
E. German language, if it be not contained in c. and D.,niust 
be taught, f. Other foreign languages. (3.) Geography and 
history. (4.) Mathematics. (5.) I^atural history. (6.) Physics. 
(7.) Philosophical propaideutics. (8.) Calligraphy. (9.) 
Drawing. (10.) Singing. (11.) Gymnastics. (2.) r. and (9.) 
to (11.) are if possible to be included, but are not absolutely 
necessary — such is an extract of the new law. 

"We must now observe, however, that the number of teachers 
in the evangelical schools, hitherto enjoying the countenance 
and sanction of the state, comes much short of that required 
by the new law, nor is it for a moment to be supposed that 
the Church of Hungary, in her present degraded condition, can 
support the requisite number of teachers, according to the 
present law. She has been too long oppressed by the state 
to be able to come up to these requirements. She has not 
the requisite unity and strength. Only one single under- 
gymnasium, that in Oberschiitzen, has been able to give the 
government security for the requisite number of teachers. 
This little Church of 1300 souls has, by that means, been 
brought into deep debt and embarrassments of all kinds. 
This is not the place to give a judgment on these new regu- 
lations which, be they good or bad, can only be gradually 
carried into effect. Enough, they are law, and according to 
them the duty of serving in the imperial armies is extended 
to all the evangelical gymnasia, with the single exception of 
Oberschiitzen.* At the same time also it is decided, first, (A) 
that with the exception of Oberschiitzen no evangeKcal under- 
gynmasium exists in the kingdom of Hungary ; that all other 
old evangelical academies have no right to exist any longer, 
so that except foreign assistance can be found the entire 



This will necessarily di-ive the youth Id to the Popish schools. 



232 



THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN HUNGARY. 



Hungarian Churcli, consisting of the Helvetian and Augs- 
burgh. Confessions, and niunbering from three to four millions, 
^T.11 not possess one single complete g5^nnasium. (B.) It 
follows that the entire eyangelical youth must either be turned 
into the Catholic schools, or be deprived of all the higher 
branches of education ; (C) and by this means the entire 
Evangelical Church of Himgary must be reduced to an indis- 
criminate mass of ignorant, uneducated plebeianism, without 
that power of union and spirit of living operation which can 
only be obtained through general intelligence and high edu- 
cation. Second, on the other hand, however, it is also mani- 
fest that if proper assistance can be given, a number of these 
evangelical gymnasia have the hope of being able to comply 
with the government regulations, and thereby to secure the 
rights and privileges of public and fully sanctioned academies. 

" According to all that we have yet heard, the attention of 
the friends of Hungary shoidd be directed to the Gymnasia 
of Oherschutzen and Eperaies, inasmuch as they give the best 
hopes of being able to support themselves ; therefore the 
central committee of the ' Gustavus Adolphus Society' de- 
termined to support these two as much as possible. Stipendia 
for philologists will also be requisite, who wish to finish their 
studies at Yienna or elsewhere. 

^' For the sending and applpng properly the gifts of 
brotherly love, the most natural medium is the central com- 
mittee already mentioned in Leipsic, under the address, ^ Dr. 
Grassmann, Leipsic,' if the brethren do not prefer sending 
their gifts directly themselves. We hope that the work of 
assistance which is begun in Germany (though without much 
effect as yet), will go forward successfully, and that other 
Protestant lands will also contribute to this work of Christian 
benevolence. We look mth special hope to Holland, where, 
as we of the Evangelical Church of the Ehine well know, it 



THE PEOPHETIC ASPECT OF CHKIST's MIXISTPY. 233 

was the custom of their faithful forefatliers ' to do good iiiito 
all men, but especially to those who are of the household of 
faith/ and where, unto the present time, so many noble 
members of the ETangelical Church imitate the pious example 
of their ancestors. We salute you with the salutation of 
respect and Christian love. 

" The Rev. Dr. Bleek, Professor of Theology and 
Coimsellor of the Eoyal Consistory. 
The Rev. Dr. Hasst, Professor of Theology. 
" J. Kjleln", Esq., Director. 

" The RcY. Dr. Dopxer, Professor of Theology and 

Counsellor of the Royal Consistory. 
" The Roy. Professor Rathe, Professor of Tlieology." 

The aboYC-mentioned brethren put the foregoing docmnent 
into my hands to translate and send to England, if I thought 
such would be useful for the Hungarian brethren. May Grod 
grant that these times of affliction for the Protestant Church 
in Hungary, may also be a time of refreshing and rcYiYal 
from the presence of the Lord. 

Bonn, Fehruary -itJi, 1853. 



II.— THE PEOPHETIC ASPECT OF CHRIST'S MIXISTEY. 

Our Lord gaYC Yarious and important prophecies during his 
public ministry (John xiii. 19, xIy. 29). Indeed his whole work 
stands in the closest and clearest connection, both with the 
past and the future. Consult the following passages : Matt, 
xii. 40 ; xYii. 22 ; xx. 18, 23 ; xxIy. 2, 10 ; xxyI. 21, 32, 34 ; 



234 



THE LAMB OF GOD. 



Mark ix. 31 ; x. S2, 39 ; xiii. 2 ; xiv. 18, 27, 30 ; xvi. 17; Luke 
ix, 22; xiii. SS ; x^oii. 31 ; xix. 43 ; xxi. 6; xxii. 21, 31 ; Jokn. 
ii. 19; vi. 70; xi. 23; xii. 23; xiii. 18, 38; xiv. 16, 26; xv. 26; 
xyi. 2, 32 ; xxi. 18 ; Acts i. 5, 6, 8. We mention particularly 
I. Prophecies concerning himself, Jolin iii. 14. His death, 
resurrection, and ascension, as well as his second coming, are 
foretold in these Scriptures. II. Prophecies concerning his 
Church ; the persecutions of his followers, the assistance of the 
Spirit, the spread of the gospel, and the final triimiphs of the 
faith. III. Prophecies concerning particular persons and 
things. JN'athaniel, John i. 51. Marj^, Matt. xxvi. 12 ; Mark 
xiv. 8. Judas, Matt. xx^i. 25. John, see and compare, John 
xxi. 22, 23 ; Matt. xvi. 28 ; Mark ix. 1 ; Luke ix. 27. Peter, 
Matt. xvi. 18, 19. Jerusalem, Mark xiii. 2 ; Luke xix. 44, 
xxi. 6. False prophets. Matt. xxiv. 5. Concerning the Jewish 
nation. Matt, xxiii. 34 — 36, compare Matt. xxiv. 34 (77 y^v^a 
avTi], tIz., the wicked Jewish race or nation — the nation as a 
perverse, obstinate race, Phil. ii. 15, yn>^a)- Thus it is mani- 
fest that the person, and work, and word of the adorable 
Hedeemer stand in the closest connection with the Church's 
future ; and that the ministry of reconciliation in all ages, if 
it be a continuation of Christ's, must have also a future aspect 
to which the Qje of suffering hope may be directed. 

February IQtli, 1853. 



III. — ' KpvLOV^ ' AjJivoq^ I^HD 

Jesus Christ, my adorable Eedeemer, is the Lamb of God 
which taketh away the sin of the world. He is the antitype 
of the Jewish sacrifices, in whom they are all completed and 
perfected, to whom they aU pointed, and for whose most 



THE IAMB OF GOD. 



235 



wortliy sacrifice upon the cross tliey were mtended to prepare 
the way. This stupendous sin-offering of the person of the 
God-man reveals to my heart at the same moment the enor- 
mity of sin and the eternal mercy of the sin-forgiver. 0, 
my Grod ! fountain and source of life, peace and rest to a 
weary creature, I come to thee. My guide is thy blessed 
Spirit, my path is the way of holiness — the new and living 
way, my passport is the sacrifice of the cross. Cover me 
under the shadow of thy wings, and let my longing spirit 
find its rest and home in thee. I accept, 0 Grod, with my 
whole heart and mind, the Lamb whom Thou hast provided, 
and I seek no other way of access to Thee. He is my Lord 
and my life, and to Him and for Him I willingly dedicate 
my entire ser^ace and my undivided strength. 

'Ajjlvoq Qeov, hear my cry ! 
Weary, sin-oppressed I lie, 
Turn to me thy pitying eye. 

'AfivoQ Qeov, sent of God, 
Bearer of the sinner's load, 
Take me to thy blest abode. 

'AfjLvog Qeov, dying friend ! 
' Thou wilt heavenly succour send ; 

Thou wilt love me to the end. 

'Ajjivoe Qeov, living head, 
Prince victorious from the dead, 
Let me in thy footsteps tread. 

'A/xvog Qeov, throned on high, 
Ruler of the starry sky, 
Bend on me thy pitying eye. 



Bonn, February V2th, 1853. 



236 



THE ROMAN CHARACTER. 



ly.^THE EOMAN CHARACTER. 

I. Tlie Romans were an eminently practical nation and did 
not, like the Grreeks, enter tlie misty regions of pkilosopliy 
and metaphysics. Their works, their inventions, and their 
enjoyments, all bear the stamp of an earnest, resolute, prac- 
tical people. 

II. They were a grave nation (as characterised by their own 
word, " gravitas.") Rome, the proiid capital and metropolis of 
the world, was the grand ideal of the Roman fame and glory. 
She ruled the world, she gave the law to conquered nations, 
she was the proud eternal, everything that belonged to her 
was important, and the Roman people, thoroughly identified 
with the history and majesty of the state, felt their import- 
ance ; and this consciousness of power gave to the individual 
a tinge of the character which belonged to the whole. They 
were not talkers like the Greeks, nor dancers like the French, 
nor dreamy and enthusiastic like the Orientals. They were 
a grave, rigid, steady people. Their language is stiff, lofty, 
and formal. Their armour is ponderous, the tread of their 
battalions shakes the ground; their will in life and in death 
is strong and earnest, ''Temorituri salutant," and they march 
resolutely on to Orcus. They respected treaties, they de- 
fended their allies, and showed through their entire history 
the gravity of a proud conquering nation. 

III. Their character was very much formed and moulded 
by their religion^ which though signally impure and incon- 
sistent, shed nevertheless, through the mass of the nation, the 
feeling of supernatural and controlling powers. Their gods 
were inseparably united the glory of the nation, and 
the celestial and terrestrial embraced one another, even 
intermingling in the business of private life, and in the 
public offices of the state. Thus their pliable polytheism 



GERMAN PROFESSORS. 



237 



became tlie mystical band {religio), by wbicb, as well as by 
arts and arms, the provinces were united to Italy, the 
Romans bound to their metropoKs, and Rome connected with 
the providence and glory of the immortal gods. This tinged 
their entire political life with glory, their history become a 
providence, their heroes were deified, and supernaturahsm, 
like a canopy of starry magnificence, encircled the land. 
Hence their ideas passed over the boundaries of time, and lost 
themselves in longings after eternity; their causeways ran 
to the ends of the earth ; their bridges, temples, and national 
monuments were built for eternity, and dedicated to the 
gods; while the immortal ruins which in the provinces, and 
in the capital, attract the notice of the traveller, confirm the 
statement of Cicero, that religiousness was the main charac- 
teristic and best support of the Roman people. 

Bonn, February 13i7i, 1853. 



v.— GEEMAN PEOFESSORS 

The influence of the German professors is very great in 
this land, and if it coidd be altogether and unitedly brought 
to bear on any one object, its efibrts would be irresistible. 
In the English Church and nation there is the bench of 
bishops to trim and steady, if not to direct, public opinion ; 
in Scotland we have our assemblies, and various church- 
courts ; in Germany, in Protestant Germany, they have 
nothing but the universities. We observe, 1st, that these 
professors are, perhaps, the most modest, unassuming, as well 
as the most learned body of men in existence. They have in 
general very small salaries, and their life is continual labour. 
2nd. They are theologically divided into various schools. 



238 



GERINIAN PROFESSORS. 



whicli hate each other cordially, and are sure to find a thousand 
causes and occasions for perpetuating their literary feuds. 
You have some, nearly orthodox, in our sense of the word, (if 
we except the article of Inspiration,) others trembling on the 
very brink of heathenism, with a number of distinct but less 
clearly defined sections to fill up the intervening chasm. 
These various schools have their names, their periodicals, and 
their admirers. 3rd. Theological dogmas and opinions are 
looked upon, not so much in the light of orthodox and here- 
tical sentiments, as questions of literary speculation, which 
like all other subjects whatever are to be brought to the 
touchstone of reason and unsparing criticism. There is 
nothing here beyond attack. If political discussion is for- 
bidden, the Germans make ample amends by their violence 
and freedom in religious controversy. Their language suits it, 
their habits are studious and contemplative, and there is no 
public authority to control them. They have neither bishops 
nor general assemblies, and the spirit of the nation will 
accept and reward with its applause a well- written learned 
book on any side of any subject. The author of a reaUy 
learned Avork will speedily be dubbed a professor in some 
university or other, whatever may be the nature of his reli- 
gious opinions. These men are always earnest and solemn in 
their demeanour, and in their wildest theories and specula- 
tions seek to contend only for the interests of truth. They 
have none of the lightness and flippancy of the French. 
Yoltaire and Strauss are real types of the nations, as well as 
, of the varieties of infidel opinion. 

Bonn, February IQth, 1853. 



THE ARK OF THE SOUL. 



239 



VI.— THE AEK OF THE SOUL. 

The true refuge of tlie soul is Christ. There the weary 
finds rest, and the poor, dejected, worn-out prodigal a home. 
To think of Christ, to be able to think of Him, is noble, and 
brings the soul into fitness for holding fellowship with Him. 
The heart must enlarge its narrow bounds to take in the 
glorious, all- absorbing idea of the God-man, which, as it 
gains more and more the mastery in and over us, refines the 
feelings and purifies the conscience, while the delighted and 
expanding soul rises on the wings of faith and love to com- 
munion with the great, the glorious, and the holy God. 
Jesus is the central point of faith, the keystone in the arch 
of the sinner's rainbow, which ever and anon sheds its many- 
coloured radiance over the clouds and tempests of life. He 
is the meeting-place between the finite and the infinite, 
where the creature and the Creator come into contact. He 
is more, he is the bridge by which the soul may safely pass 
the gulf which separates eternity from time, the visible from 
the invisible world. God-man is the great conception of all 
revelation, the wonderful and eternal design of Jehovah for 
manifesting Himself, without which the creation were shorn 
of its dignity, and the character of the Deity bereft of its 
most splendid illustrations. This is the basis of election, of 
redemption, and of the Church ; the fountain, out of which 
the stream of beneficence flows, from the unapparent God- 
head, to the Church, the himian race, and the whole universe. 
Here the sinner finds a rock to rest upon, which can resist 
the ocean surges of eternity, and sustain him in the midst of 
dissolving worlds. Here is a sin-sacrifice worthy of God, 
and capable of making man worthy too ; where holiness and 
mercy, and all the attributes of the Judge and the Father 
meet in the rainbow of gospel-hope, which bespans and pro- 



240 



QUESTIONS FOR THE POPE. 



tects the world. His life, liis work, his death, were perfect, 
and he that believeth in him shall never be confounded. 

" Kock of ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee." 

Bon7i, February 18t7i, 1853. 



AHLI.— QUESTIONS FOE THE POPE.— CHAEITY. 

It is admitted, even by your holiness (o avO^bJirog rf/c 
afxa^Tiaq, ^ Thes. ii. 3), that charity {ayawri) is a noble 
virtue. It is recommended and enforced in the word of Gfod ; 
the apostles and martyrs practised it. You have established 
tbe community called the Sisters of Charity, and you will 
not, perhaps, think the less of this virtue because it is rare. 

Quid est fides ? quod non vides. 

Quid est spes? futura res. 

Quid est charitas? in hoc mundo raritas. 

Is it charity which leads you, with your cardinals, to in- 
dulge in wealth, splendour, state, carriages with the famous 
S.P.Q.R. upon them, palaces, crowns (not of thorns), jewels, 
purple, and imperial garments (Rev. xvii. 4), and everything 
which can possibly lead to luxury and pride ? Out of pure 
charity to the poor, it is, no doubt, that you have established 
throuo-hout your dominions such a miiversal system of lot- 
teries and gaming, by which such copious streams of wealth 
flow into the pockets of the priests and monks ? It is, . no 
doubt, the same charity which leads your infallible holiness 
(o vioQ riiQ aTTuyXuaQ, ^ Thes. ii. 3) to establish and license so 
many brothels, being a revised and improved edition of an old 
heatbeniEli and imperial tax which I forbear to name ? Please 



QUESTIONS FOR THE POPE. 241 

tell me how many Italians (1.) your charity for the souls of 
men has led you to banish from their country ? (2.) How 
many are now in the dungeons of Home, owing to your 
charitable compassion for their everlasting welfare ? — they 
have time to meditate, their thoughts are free, and they 
have no Bibles to contaminate their minds. (3.) How many 
have you tortured, suffocated, starved, burned, or otherwise 
put to death, out of pure charity, since you ascended the 
throne ? It is this same charity, undoubtedly, which in- 
duces you to establish so many stations, pillars, pictures, wink- 
ing virgins, and masses for the dead, at the rate of 2s. 6d. 
a piece ; all of which have the double advantage of emptying 
the purgatorial prisons and filling your exhausted treasury ? 
You say charity begins at home, and you are right. Self- 
love is far from selfishness, and the more money you get 
the less will your slaves have to misspend. You mercifully 
remove the causes of human evils. Some wrest the Scrip- 
ture to their own destruction, and therefore you lock them 
up ; some abuse liberty, and you therefore mercifully remove 
it from your dominions ; many desecrate the Sabbath, and 
therefore you charitably give permission to break it ; holi- 
ness is a difficult attainment, which people are, in general, 
not disposed to seek, and you charitably get them a passport 
to heaven without it ; many children are disobedient, many 
fathers incompetent instructors, many families are scenes of 
discord and confusion, but you, happily, cut up the evil by 
the roots in your doctrine of celibacy ; bonds, vows, and 
oaths are sacred, and difficult to be kept, but your benevo- 
lence can dispense with the obligation. Thus your charity 
and human heartedness are great, and deserve commendation ; 
in the mean time be pleased to answer me the following 
questions : — 

R 



242 



THE SON OF MAN. 



1st. Whether is ambition, licentiousness, persecution, or 
idolatry the besetting sin of the popes ? 

2nd. How can I be assured that what you forgive on earth 
will be forgiven in heaven ? 

3rd. "Which cardinal was it, who, when asked how many 
masses would release a soul out of purgatory, answered. 

How many snow-balls would it take to heat an oven V 

4th. Can you tell me which race of kings or princes have 
been the most wicked, luxurious, and inhuman which the 
world ever saw ? 

5th and lastly, for the present. Can you tell me, as the 
infallible guide and governor of the nations (Rev. xiii. 7), 
the true interpretation of the man of sin, the son of per- 
dition, the great hypocritical bachelor (1 Tim. iv. 2, 3), the 
scarlet-coloured whore, and the mystical Babylon ? 

Bonn, February 20th, 1853. 



VIII. O UIOC TOV avdpbJTTOV. 

Lord Jesus, my saviour and my king ! Thou art the son 
of man, and under this endearing name I delight to con- 
template thee. Thou didst not forsake the fallen and pol- 
luted race, when sin had separated them from God, but hum- 
bled thyself to our sorrowful condition. 0, my prince and 
saviour, what shall I render to thee for all thy love ? Thou 
art my brother, my kinsman-redeemer ; and my weak, weary, 
and fainting heart turns from self and sin, and the whole 
world, with confidence to Thee. Thou seest me with a 
human eye, and with a human ear hearest my prayers. Thou 
wast a child, a man, a sufferer, a dying lamb, that we poor 
perishing mortals might see in thy life and death the tokens 



DE NATIVITATE DOMINI. 



243 



of thine own and tliy Father's immeasurable love. O holy- 
Lamb ! 0 blessed Redeemer and Mediator, how unworthy 
am I of thy loye or compassion ! 0, be thou my aim, my 
object, and my end ! To thee let me dedicate my life, and 
all that I haye and am, for time and for eternity. In thee I 
see God's image restored, as well as my own sin- stained 
nature glorified with the strength and beauty of immortality. 
In thee I see the law bereft of its terrors, death robbed of 
its sting, which is sin, and the thunders of an unknown and 
angry Creator turned into the voice of a loving and benignant 
Father. 

" A pilgrim through tliis lonely world, 
The blessed Saviour passed ; 
A mourner all his life was He, 
A dying lamb at last. 

" That tender heart that felt for all. 
For all its life-blood gave ; 
It found on earth no resting-place. 
Save only in the grave. 

" Such was our Lord — and shall we fear 
The cross with all its scorn ; 
Or love a faithless evil world, 

That wreathed His brow with thorn ?" 

Bonn, February 26th, 1853. 



IX.— DE NATIVITATE DOMINI. 

" Puer natus in Bethlehem, 
Unde gaudet Jerusalem. 



Hie jacet in praesepio 
Qui regnat sine termino. 



r2 



244 



DE NATIVITATE DOMINI. 



Cognovit bos et asinus 
Quod puer erat Dominus. 

De matre natus virgine, 
Sine vii'ili semine. 

Sine serpentis vulnere, 
De nostro venit sanguine. 

In came nobis similis 
Peccato sed dissimilis. 

Ut redderet nos homines 
Deo et sibi similes. 

In hoc natali gaudio 
Benedicamus Domino. 

Laudatur sancta Trinitas, 
Deo dicamus gratias." 



Bonn, February 26th, 1853. 



GERVINTJS. 



245 



MARCH. 

I. G. G. G-ervinus. II. Thoughts on Missions. III. To the Memory of mj 
Son Edward; 1. Notice; 2. Wandering Thoughts; 3. Meditation and 
Prayer; 4. He is not Dead but Sleepeth — A Hymn; 5. Submission — A 
Hymn, Heb. xii. 10; 6. Jesus the Life; the Eevealer — a Hymn; 7. The 
Elder-Brother, Heb. ii. 14, 15; 8. Edward; 9. The East; Associations, 
lY. Walk in Love. V. The Week's Work. Yl. Scripture Illustrations. 
VII. The Pope's Love to his Neighbour. A True Story. VIII. The Hea- 
venly Mansions, John xiv. 2, 3. IX. Ohvet; a Look after Christ. X. 
The Apocrypha ; its Errors. XI. The Ringing of Bells. XII. Titles of 
Honour ; a Supper Party. XIII. Longing after Jesus. XIV. The Grievous 
Wound. XV. Good Friday ; 1. A Popish Custom ; 2. The Lord's Supper ; 
3. Solemn Thoughts; 4. Hymnus Paschalis. XVI. The Tomb of Christ. 
XVII. Travelling ; National Characteristics. XVIII. The Jews ; Eecapitu- 
lation. XIX. The Darkness before the Dawn — a Hymn. 



I._G. G. GERVINUS. 

This celebrated man is before tbe courts of Baden on tbe 
charge of treason. He wrote and published an " Introduction 
to the History of the JN^ineteenth Century," and for this he 
has been called in question by the authorities. The Introduc- 
tion contains only 181 pages, and the type is large ; but the 
substance is of the most logical and condensed kind. He 
follows the various streams of historical development in all 
nations and ages, and asserts that the ancient law of Aristotle 
is verified by universal experience — "that political power 
passes from the one to the few, and from the few to the many, 
with the certainty and regularity of an ordinance of Grod." 
This is the principle of his work, and with wonderful sagacity 
and ingenuity he brings all the great events of ancient and 



246 THOUGHTS ON MISSIONS. 

modern history to bear Tipon and illustrate it. The language 
is in the highest degree calm, condensed, and philosophical. 
He is no democrat. When he was in the Frankfort parliament 
he belonged to the moderate party. He is professor of history 
in Heidelberg, and has written the best history of philosophy 
in Grermany or the world. He is, in his own line, generally 
considered the most celebrated man in Germany. The charge, 
of course, is that the book is calculated and intended to excite 
disturbance, and lead to the overthrow of existing govern- 
ments. It is not yet finally decided. The book is not for- 
bidden in Prussia. In England, even conservative members 
would, in their place in parliament, feel no hesitancy (if it 
answered their purpose) in adopting the entire argument of 
the book. He TocqueviUe, the Eoman Catholic writer on 
America, came to the same conclusion many years ago, and 
without doubt the movements of the present political world seem 
favourable to the principles of democracy. The opinion may 
be right or wrong, but surely it is not punishable, much less 
treasonable, to hold it. 

Bonn, March Srd, 1853. 



II.— THOUGHTS ON MISSIONS. 

Love, dearly beloved, is the sap that flows in the vine, the 
blood that circulates in the body, the cement of the living 
temple, the marriage-bond between Jesus and his Church, the 
one law in grace, like gravitation in nature, by which every 
department in the gospel economy is kept dependent on, and 
in connection with, its living and glorified Head. He is the 
light of the world, and it is natural that we should diffuse it ; 
He is love, and having felt it we seek to proclaim it ; soldiers 



THOUGHTS ON ISIISSIONS. 



247 



of His cross, we pursue our noiseless way, and by victories over 
ignorance and sin we add new provinces to His dominions. 
His kingdom of grace is come, and tlie kingdom of His glory 
is coming ; new and fresh powers are coming into the field, 
while old tactics are passing away, and all things betoken the 
dawnings of a bright and glorious future. The three leavens, 
indeed, still work in the mass of human nature, as was to be 
expected, and Herod, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees have 
their successors, as well as Jesus Christ and his holy apostles ; 
but the Christian nations are awake, the power of Islam is 
crumbling to the dust, Judaism is shaken to its centre, and 
the heathen world in India, Birma, China, &c., is opening to 
the light of the gospel. The streams, too, of the races are 
deepening and widening, and the Anglo-Saxon, with its 
mission of liberty and love, is asserting its superiority, and 
diffusing over distant continents and kingdoms, in our own 
language, the wonderful inventions of these last times, and 
the ennobling principles of a pure Christianity. May thy 
kingdom come, 0 Lord, and thy will be done on earth as it 
is in heaven ! 



Rich in mercy, God of love, 
Send thy blessings from above ; 
Let thy gospel, full and free. 
Draw the weary soul to thee. 

Grace can wash the crimson white ; 
Grace can make the darkness light ; 
Efficacious quickening breath, 
Grace can break the sleep of death. 

Roll the sea of mercy wide ! 
Onward bear the rising tide ! 
Till the name of Jesus sounds 
Through the world's remotest bounds. 



248 



NOTICE OF ]\IY SON EDWARD. 



Waft the name to distant lands ; 
Loose the fetters, break the bands ; 
Sound the trump of jubilee, 
Jesus sets the captives free. 

Bonn, March Wi, 1853. . 

III.— TO THE MEMOEY OF ls\X SON EDWAED FYNN, 
WHO DIED IN 1849. 

1. NOTICE. 

March 9t]i, 1849, I received in Hamburg tlie news that 
my eldest son was dead. The stroke was like a thunderbolt. 
It was terrible and unexpected, and the health of my darling 
boy had been strong and robust. He was bom in the parish of 
Dundonald, in Ireland, carried as an infant with us when we 
went to Damascus in 1842, and returned with us again in 1847 
to Ireland. He remained with his mother in Ireland when I 
went to Hambui'g as Jewish missionary, and died in DubKn 
of inflammation of the luno^s, after an illness of a few davs. 
He was nearly seven years of age, and spoke the EngKsh, 
Arabic, and French languages. William, my second son, 
was born in Beyrout, April 14, 1842, and died at the age of 
three years. He was a very smart loving Kttle boy. John 
Turnly was born in Damascus, July 31st, 1845, and died at 
the age of eleven months. The Lord giveth, and the Lord 
taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Jesus is the 
life, and we shall see Him in His glory, and the lambs of His 
flock which he prnxhased with His precious blood. Let us 
live in Him, for Him, and to Him for evermore. 

" Mit ihm kommt neues Blut und Leben 
In dein erstorbenes Gebein, 
Und wann du ihm das Herz gegeben 
So ist audi Seines ewig dein." 



WANDERING THOUGHTS. 



249 



Yes, our dear little ones are not dead, but sleeping ; they 
are in His blessed presence, where there is fulness of joy and 
pleasure for evermore. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, and 
end the dark dominion of death and the grave. 

2. WANDERING THOUGHTS ; THE FIRST BURST OF GRIEF ; EDWARD. 

Away, away, my child ! 
God calls thee home ; 
And I am left to suffer, 
Distracted and alone ! 
I will make no moan, 
But in silence say. 
Away ! my child, away ! 

Away, my child, away ! 

The Lord hath lent thee for a season, 

Thy little day is spent, the joyful youth, 

AATien childhood yields to reason ; 

Away ! God calls thee home, 

And I am left alone ; 

Away, my child, away ! 

Away, my child, away ! 

The world where thou art gone 

Hath hetter joys than this. 

With God thy God alone, 

Is ti'ue and perfect bUss ; 

There, pillowed on the children-loying breast, 

Nor grief nor pain can break thy peaceful rest. 

Away, away, my child ! 

We soon shall follow thee ! 

Such is the stern decree 

That death must follow sin. 

We linger still outside the city gate, 

Whilst thou, my son, eujoy'st the blissful state, 

The heavenly fold within ; 

Away, away, my child. 



250 



MEDITATION AND PRAYER. 



Away, angels are waiting, 
With harps in theii- hand, 
And in glory effulgent, 
The Lord of the land 

Stands ready to crown thee, redeemed by his blood, 
And welcome thee home to his Father's abode ; 
Then go, my sweet child, and though tears may be shed, 
They are tears for the living and not for the dead ; 
Away, away, my child. 

3. :meditation and prayer. 

0, most merciful and eternal Grod, look in pity and com- 
passion upon my bereaved wife, and let not this heavy bereave- 
ment press her down to the dust. Thou knowest all her 
wants and weakaess ; give her the consolations of thy grace, 
O God, and let her bow submissively to thy will. Preserve 
and bless also m}^ only remaining child, 0 Lord my Grod, for 
the sake of Jesus Christ, thy well beloved Son. Amen. 

O my son, Edward, my son, shall I never see thee again ! 
ISTo more press thy little hand, no more receive thy welcome 
kiss ! Thou didst die far from thy father, and he knew not 
of thy sufferings and death. He was forbidden the last sad 
farewell of death, but he shall weep over thy grave, and 
cherish the bright memory of thy sweet form and face till he 
meets thee in heaven. 

I call through the now desolate house, " Edward," 
No sound is heard; but echo answers, " Edward." 

One of the strongest ties that bound me to the earth is now 
broken. It only remains that I serve and love the Lord 
Jesus alone, with fresh energy and zeal. Death has no more 
dominion over him, and he has promised us the victory over 
death and all the enemies of our souls. Help me, 0 Grod, to 
fulfil this, my vow, for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son. 



SUBMISSION. 



251 



4. "HE IS NOT DEAD BUT SLEEPETH." (a HYMN.) 

The star of my hopes has gone down. 
And the earth may resume what it gave ; 
My Edward, my joy and my crown, 
Is laid in a premature grave. 

When the fountain of sorrow flows o'er, 
And the father remains in his tears, 
Let me love, let me lahour still more. 
Through all that remains of my years. 

Not anger but grace guides thy hand, 
My God and my Father above ; 
And leads me to long for the land 
Of the king and the kingdom of love. 

I would not recall, if I could. 
My son from the realms of the blest ; 
Be it mine to improve as I should. 
And bow to the sovereign behest. 

It is a great reKef in trouble to be firmly persuaded tbat 
tbe world is under tbe wise and boly government of God. 
Sorrow loses mucb of its bitterness by the conviction tbat the 
design is a gracious one, and we never submit so joyfully to 
the appointed discipline and trials of tbis life, as when we 
recognise in tbem the cbastenings of a Father's love (Heb. 
xii. 10). The Germans have a noble hjnnn on this subject, 
which I shall render freely into EngKsh, in the same measure 
with the original. 

5. SUBMISSION. (a HYMN ; HEB. XII. 10.) 

What God does is well done. 

Who takes what he gave. 
Says the mother in tears 
By the newly made grave. 
The sentence is holy ; the judgment is just, 
Let the evil of sin be inscribed in the dust. 



252 



JESUS THE LIFE, 



What God does is well done, 

Love shines through his might ; 
Like the bow in the cloud, 
Like the stars in the night. 
And the pilgrim with burdens of anguish oppressed, 
By the way has his manna ; in Canaan his rest. 

What God does is well done, 

The thorn and the rose. 
The tempest of death, 
And the sunny repose, 
Are alike in the hands of all- merciful love, 
The means to prepare us for glory above. 

What God does is well done ; 

The sky may be dark, 
And mde waves submerging 
The tremulous bark. 
But fear not ; the sleeper will rise in his might. 
To shed o'er th^tempests his rainbow of light. 

What God does is well done ; 

On this we can rest, 
That his ways are always 
The safest and best. 
Through the sea, or the storm, or the wilderness wild, 
Let him lead me ! the Father is leading his child. 

6. JESUS THE LIFE ; THE RE\T:ALEE, OF GOD, (a HYIVIN.) 

Jesus the word ! revealer of the unknown ; 
God's image visible to mortal sight; 
To a dark world by Satan overthrown. 
Author and bringer of eternal light. 

To thee we turn, to thee we come for rest. 
Immortal sufferer ! though now on high ; 
And John-like leaning on thy loving breast, 
We calmly wait our summons to the sky. 



THE REVEALER OF GOD. 



253 



Death reigns ; and tearful eyes look up to Thee, 
The conqueror, the king, the prince of life ! 
Come ! is the cry of all, the bond, the free. 
Lord Jesus, come, and end this mortal strife. 

The ever asking hut unsated grave ; 
The blood-bought church, betrothed yet widowed bride ; 
The groaning world cries. Come ! those thou must save, 
Almighty prince : and all is vain beside. 

Yet would we seek the majina by the way, - 
The waters flowing from the smitten rock ; 
The morning star before the break of day, 
The fruits of peace before the battle shock. 

All is now ready ; — ^books packed, tlie liouse empty, and 
there begins to creep over me tliat uneasiness which, a man 
feels when he breaks up the order of his former modes and 
habits. Love, family affections, little thought of during the 
last seven months, because hope was distant and study severe, 
are now awakening with renewed vigour. Blessed be Grod 
for what remains ! wife and child remain, but four are gone ! 
0 God, have mercy upon me, and spare them to be my con- 
solation in future years. 0 Edward, my son, my darling 
Edward, shall I see thee no more ; thy gentle voice no more 
welcome my return ! 0 death, death, how I hate thee ! 0 
how terrible sin must be, the cause and fountain of death ! 
0 how we should love and adore Him, the Prince of Life, 
who came to abolish death, and destroy the works of the 
devil. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Grive us the 
Quickener, as the earnest and the first-fruits of our eternal 
inheritance. 

Come, Spirit of life, from thy home in the sky. 
And quicken on earth what is ready to die ; 
And through the whole realm of the spiritually dead, 
Let the power of thy life-giving presence be shed. 



254 



JESUS THE LIFE. 



Death, breaks all Iminaii attacliments, but it strengtbens 
the Divine. The eye of faith brightens as the natural eye 
grows dim ; and as one by one the human props and stays 
leave us, we feel all the more confident in the guidance 
and strength of our one human Divine Friend. He remains; 
His love is immortal, and the deep silent breathings of 
our souls should ever be, that we might love, serve, and 
adore Him more and more. 

Lord, fill my heart with pure desires, 

Thy glory to proclaim ; 
Zeal which thy dying love inspires, 

A life-consuming flame. 

He never sends without giving the provision for the jour- 
ney ; he calls and qualifies for his work, and when we are 
in sorrow and troubles, his mercies are ever varied and ever 
new. His bow always appears in the cloud. I was much, 
comforted by the following lines, which appeared in a Ham- 
burg newspaper, after the public authorities had prevented 
me from preaching in the fields. 

Eufe laut und schone nicht. Is. Iviii. 1. 
Christus will ein Zeugness hahen. Mat. x. 27 — 33. 
Wenn die Geistlichen vergraben. Mar. viii. 33. 
O dann kommt ein Zorngericht. 1 Pet. iv. 17, 18. 
Rufe laut und schone nicht. 1 Cor. xvi. 22. 

But the cbief consolation for the sinner in life, or in death, 
should and must be found in Jesus himself. All other joys 
and comforts, how sweet soever they may be, are but the 
little streamlets which are not deep enough to satisfy ; in 
Him is the ocean-fulness of Jehovah's love ; and, what serves 
most of all to satisfy our needy state and condition, this 
fulness, laid up eternally in our elder-brother, is put at our 



THE ELDER BROTHER. 



255 



disposal from the moment in which we believe on Him, to 
make us conquerors in the warfare against sin and Satan. 

7. THE ELDER BROTHER. (a HYMN. HEB. II. 14, 15.) 

Thou great elder-brother on high, 

Exalted a saviour to be ; 
When the season of anguish draws nigh, 

The heart turns for succour to thee. 

We inherit the curse of th e fall, 

With its burdens of sorrow and shame ; 

But the Lord and the lover of all, 
In compassion took part of the same. 

With fears of the future oppressed, 

And a burden of sorrow and dread ; 
We long for some region of rest, 

Less cold than the realm of the dead. 

'Tis done ! the Kedeemer, the life, 

Who came in his mercy to save ; 
Has prevailed in the terrible strife, 

And opened the gates of the grave. 

'Tis done ! and the banner of love, 

From the throne of the victor unfurled, 

Invites to the kingdom above. 

With an offer as wide as the world. 

Thou great elder-brother on high, 

Exalted a saviour to be ; 
When the season of anguish draws nigh. 

The heart turns for succour to thee. 



The following lines were written to my son Edward, to 
remind of the East, a few days before I got the news of his 
death. He never saw them. He died full of faith and hope 
in the Divine Eedeemer. 



256 



EDWARD. THE EAST. 



8. EDWARD. 

Seest thou, my child, yon star so bright, 

As it leads thee along by its silvery light ; 

Jesus who loves thee is brighter far. 

And guides thee to heaven like that silvery star. 

Seest thou the lambkin gentle and mild, 
Sportive and glad as a little child ; 
Jesus who loves thee is tenderer still. 
And died to redeem thee from every ill 

Seest thou the glorious orb of day, 
As it chases the shades of night away ; 
Like Jesus who seeks little children to bless. 
The sun of a system of righteousness. 

Seest thou, my child, the living rock, 
For ages resisting the tempest's shock ; 
That smitten rock in the desert wild, 
That rock is Christ — is't not, my child ? 

Thou hast seen in the land of the palm and the pine, 
The stately stem of the sainted vine ; 
Fit type, as the scriptures sweetly tell, 
Of one who loved little childi'en well. 

Witli one other quotation, I shall finisL. these extracts 
from my former journals. It refers me to the East, as most 
of my meditations and studies do, and brings again to 
remembrance the loss of my dear children. 



9. THE EAST ; ASSOCIATIONS. 

My heart turns towards the East and lingers there ! 
For there the sweetest, holiest, memories be. 
From field and forest, rock and mountain bare, 
Of Him, my soul, who lived and died for thee. 



WALK ES" LOVE. 



257 



My heart turns towards the East, for there sleep well 
My daiiing bahes ; my son, the mother's pride ; 
They sleep where Jesus met the mm-derous Saul ; 
Most sacred spot to life and death allied. 

My heart tm*ns eastward ; morn, the glorious mom, 

With roseate streaks is breaking from afar ; 

And in the dawning glory one bright form, 

With radiance crowned, shines like the morning star. 

My Lord, my life, my king ! I welcome thee ! 
Let nature breathe ! hope's banner be unfmied, 
The time di-aws nigh, the glorious jubilee, 
When peace and righteousness shall fill the world. 

0 most merciful and faithful Grod ! I thank and praise 
thee, for the blessed hope of seeing once more those whom we 
love. Death does not divide for ever. I shall yet see those 
dear children, whom thou didst give and take away. I know 
and believe they are with thee, and that I have no reason to 
sorrow, as those who have no hope. Life and immortality 
have been brought to light in the gospel, and thy dear Son 
will faithfully preserve the lambs of the flock. Hasten, 0 
Grod, the coming and kingdom of Christ, when all the sepa- 
rated and scattered ones shall be finally united in the one 
blessed fold of his everlasting love. 

Bonn, March bth, 1853. 



iy._WALK IN LOVE. 
Eph. v. 2 ; Col. iv. 5 ; Is. ii. 5 ; Eom. xiv. 13 ; 1 John ii. 10. 

The sweetest savour in the sight of Grod, is love ; therefore 
Christ was most pleasing to Grod, because he ofiered up his 



258 



WAUL IN LOVE. 



life for us sinners out of love. Therefore, those alone please 
God, who walk in love as Christ did, and act towards their 
brethren as he did towards us : those who are willing to 
sacrifice themselves for their fellow-men, who have learned 
to deny themselves what they most love, to avoid all appear- 
ance of evil, and give no offence ; who do what grace makes 
it possible to do, in order to edify, bless, and save their fellow- 
men from destruction. Wilt thou kindle a sweet incense to 
the Lord ? then let the flame of love burn in thy soul ; let it 
spark up in works of love ; fan, feed, and increase it through 
earnest prayer, constant exercise in acts of love, and through 
a walk in the light of love without stumbling or giving 
offence. What in the first Christians edified the Heathen 
most ? ' Their love to one another and to all men. " See how 
they love one another,'' said they, when they saw the 
Christians meeting one another, or assembled in the house of 
prayer. ISTo light shines so brightly, none glances so in the 
eyes as the light of love, where there is no shade, no spot of 
scandal or offence. All light is painted light, is darkness, 
when it is not pm-e love. All the sweetness and appearance 
of love is insipid and of bad savour before God, when it is 
not edifying, active — when it leads not to the walk of love 
according to the mind and example of Christ. He who 
despises any one man, or does not respect him, even should 
he be, as Paul says, icitJiout, separated from the communion of 
Christ, or a worldHng, or a child of the devil, that man's 
light is darkness, his love is a cold form, a mere north-light, 
that twinkles indeed, but gives not heat. 

Wer Briider liebt der liebet sicli. 
0 seid barmherzig, briiderlich ! 
Seld freimdlicb imd von Herzen klein ! 
Ein Jeder woll' der Kleinste sein. 



THE week's regular WORK. 



259 



HeiT Jesu ! imser Herr und Haupt 
An den das arme Hauflein glaubt, 
Auf dich ist unsere Zuversicht, 
Und unser Auge hingericht't. 

Durch deine Gnade ganz allein, 
Wird unser Wunsch gewahret sein ; 
Lass uns aus Gnad' in Gnade gehen, 
Und als verbundene Mauern stehen ! 

Bonn, March Qth, 1853. 



v.— THE WEEK'S EEGULAK WOEK. 

"We rise at half-past five every morning, and go to bed at 
eleven o'clock. This was rather early during the winter, but 
in order to ensure it, I made arrangements with a gentleman 
to come and talk English and Grerman at that hour; thus 
necessity came in to help virtuous resolutions. We breakfast 
at half-past seven, dine at one, and take tea at six o'clock. 
Immediately after breakfast and tea we have family worship. 
The prayer is in German, but the reading in various lan- 
guages. Sundae/ is my busiest day. From half-past nine 
till half-past eleven is our English serAdce ; the attendance 
varies from fifteen upwards. In the summer it is much 
larger. At a quarter before two the Sunday-school com- 
mences, and continues till three o'clock. We have fifteen 
teachers and 110 children. This is a new experiment. It is 
doing well, and is likely to be imitated in other places. 
From three to half-past four we have our regular Grerman 
service. The attendance here is large and respectable. 
From six to seven I go to the Grerman church to keep up my 
knowledge of Grerman, and give a good example to others. 

s 2 



260 



THE T\^Ek's regular WORK. 



From seven to nine I spend in a prayer-meeting and conver- 
sation with, the Countess of Stierm, an excellent bed-rid 
religious old lady. This ends my Sunday sei-vices. I am 
generally very tired, and therefore well j)repared for a sound 
sleep. Monday is devoted to receiving visits from Jews, tra- 
vellers, linguists, Orientalists, antiquarians, &c., and in the 
evening, from seven to nine, I hold my regular lecture for 
the Jews, on the whole subject of Orientalism and Bible 
interpretation. This lectui-e is well attended, though not by 
Jews, and I have many proofs of its being useful to both 
Germans and English. It has continued regularly during 
the last fifteen months, and is still one of the most attractive 
points of our mission. Tuesday I read, write, visit, and pre- 
pare; I answer letters, arrange tracts, assort Bibles, &c., for 
the colporteiu\ Wednesday, at two o'clock, I have a German 
class of the more advanced of the Sunday-school children for 
teaching and expounding the Heidelberg Catechism; from 
thi-ee to half-past four I have my English class, which con- 
sists generall^^ of about twelve or fifteen young people, who 
wish fuller instruction in the principles of Chiistianity. The 
parents and guardians come with them, so that the room is 
generally well-filled, and I have many opportunities of speak- 
ing a word in season. This class is generally considered one 
of the most important and attractive of our meetings. From 
seven to a quarter-past eight in the evening I hold my 
German prayer-meeting, which is generally tliinly attended. 
On Friday, I have the meeting of a young-men's society in 
the evening, and the other two days are given mainly to pre- 
paration for the services, and the various pui^poses of the 
mission. On Saturday the colporteur reads his report and 
receives books and instructions. Thus there are regularly 
eight meetings every week in our chapel, and of these four 
are ra German and foui- ia English. This is the regular 



SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



261 



work of every week, and being once mentioned need not be 
repeated. There are, indeed, often extra labours whicli 
necessarily arise in a mission, and cannot be particularly 
specified. 

^^b3, '^n^p irir) 
bv. '^'VV.^) ^^P^ 



For Sion's sake I will not rest, 
I will not hold my peace 

Until Jerusalem be blest 
And Judah dwell at ease ; 

Until her righteousness return 
As day-break after night ; 

The lamp of her salvation burn 
With everlasting light. 



nnSJl r]^)-!^ r]i)T4 "TjLT 

•inh b'b:2 TBb^ 



Bonn, March 7t7i, 1853. 



VI.— SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The following passages in Matthew's gospel, I baye found 
occasion to illustrate from the manners and customs of the 
East. Matt. i. 18 ; ii. 2, 11 ; iii. 4, 11, 12, 15 ; iv. 23 ; v. 1, 

13, 14, 17, 24, 28, 31, 33, 34, 36, 47 ; vi. 5, 7, 17, 30 ; 
viii. 12, 28; ix. 1, 2, 6, 17, 20, 23; x. 9, 10, 14, 27 ; xi. 17; 
xii. 42 ; xiv. 6, 8, 10, 20 ; xy. 4, 26; xyi. 18; xyii. 3, 6, 21, 
25, 34 ; xix. 24 ; xx. 22 ; xxi. 8, 34 ; xxii. 3, 11 ; xxiii. 7, 

14, 24, 27 ; xxiy. 17, 41. Hence it appears that many diffi- 
culties in the holy Scriptures, if not the entire of them, are 
owing to our ignorance. Hence it follows, also, that books of 
trayels, especially when the journeys are made in the East, 
are great helps to the expositor, and that the trayellers of 
modern times, who haye directed their attention to this 



262 THE pope's LOVE TO HIS XEIGHBOUR. 

matter, deserve the tlianks of all tlie friends of tlie sacred 
Scriptures. 

Bonn, March ^tlu 1853. 



YII.— THE POPE'S LOVE TO HIS XEIOHBOUE.— A LITTLE 

HISTOEY. 

The scene is the fair city of Brussels, the residence of 
Albert, Archduke of Austria, and Governor of the Nether- 
lands, for the King of Spain, PhilijD the Second. It is the 
year 1597. The city had been long ago concjuered, and all 
the Protestants banished or "killed. The sharp eye of the arch- 
duke discovers a servant girl, who inclines to the doctiTnes 
of the Eefonnation. She is brought, questioned, and confesses 
that she is a Protestant. The -Jesuits take her in hand, vuth 
the hope of converting her to the doctrines of the Pope. She 
will not, however, worship the Virgin ^lary, or the saints, as 
she is persuaded there is only one God, and one Mediator 
between God and men. Instead of the purification of purga- 
tory she will trust in the efficacy of the blood of Christ. 
The mass, with all its foiTus and ceremonies, has no charms 
for her, as her Lord and Master never appointed it. She has 
faith in the Son of God, and will not give it up, nor can the 
windings of the Jesuits bend her clear fii^m mind from the 
convictions of her himible, but immortal hopes. She is warned, 
she is entreated, and she is threatened with shame and tor- 
ture, and death. She can suffer, however, but she cannot sin. 
Like Colonel Gardiner, she could say, I am not afraid to 
die, but I am afraid to sin." 0, most noble faith, most heroic 
resolve I But see, the crowds are gatheiing from all parts of 
the city, and a strange, terrible feeling of wonder, amaze- 



THE HEAVENLY MANSIONS. 



263 



ment, and horror, creeps over the multitudes, and the hearts 
of the stoutest tremble. They are Papists, indeed, but they 
are men, and they would willingly turn from the fearful 
sight, but the strange irresistible curiosity, so potent in the 
human breast, leads them on. The grave is digged deep and 
wide, and they know well what it is for. Anneke Hove is 
there too ; she is, indeed, necessary for the occasion, and she 
knows her doom. She will not recant, and the Jesuits must 
have their revenge. The coffin is opened, the young and 
beautiful confessor of the faith is laid into it, and the lid 
made fast. It is laid into the grave, and the cold earth 
receives its warm, living victim, the mould is shovelled in 
uj)on the coffin, and the yoimg martyr of Jesus closes her 
eyes to die. The multitudes return to their houses in silence, 
or perhaps indignation, the Jesuits depart in triumph, and 
set themselves to watch for fresh victims. The tender mercies 
of the wicked are crueL 



YIII.— THE HEAVENLY MANSIONS. John xiv. 2, 3. 

0, sweet word of comfort, for all suffering and troubled 
hearts on earth. He who understands that word in faith 
must, in the most disconsolate condition, feel comfort, and in 
discontentment, joy. So only can the Son of God, the Son 
of eternal love, comfort. Such promises for everlasting life, 
who can impart? who can fulfil them? Therefore Thou 
alone shalt have our entire hearts, 0 thou preparer of our 
glory, thou master-builder of the heavenly mansions, thou 
messenger of the Father, who thine own self wilt take us 
and introduce us into the crystalline diamond palaces. When 
the poor weak heart thinks, where Thou art, there shall I be, 
and as Thou art, so sublime, so glorious, so blessed shall I 



264 



THE HEAVENLY MANSIONS. 



become. "VYlien the heart compreliends that word in all its 
fulness, in all its height and depth, then it almost dies nnder 
the blessed glorious hope. ^TiT wilt Thou have us with 
Thee, so near Thee, and so near Thee for ever? What in us 
pleases Thee so well? "Whiat joy can we give Thee? Shall 
we enhance Thy blessedness? Yes, we shall be the object of 
Thy love, on which it can expend all its fulness ; for no crea- 
ture can so much need Thy love and kindness as we poor 
weak sin Tiers. Who can think of heaven without remem- 
bering Thee and Thy promise vrith extatic joy? Heaven! 
thou many-mansioned house of our Father, thou home of the 
disciples of Jesus ! how beautifid art thou, when the words of 
Jesus make thee bright before our eyes ! how beautiful art 
thou, when we think of the mansions which His hand has 
pre23ared for us in thee. ^Yho can satisfy himself in gazing 
at thee — even from without? What then must it be within? 

" There is a land of pure delight 
"Where saints immortal reign ; 
Eternal day excludes the night, 
And pleasioi'es banish pain. 

There everlasting spring abides, 

And never-withering flowers ; 
Death, like a narrow sea divides, 

This heavenly land from onrs. 

But timorous mortals start and shrink. 

To cross this narrow sea; 
And linger shivering on the brink, 

And fear to launch away. 

Oh ! could we make oiu doubts remove. 

Those gloomy doubts that rise; 
And see the Canaan that we love, 

With unbeclouded eyesl 



OLIVET. LOOK AFTER CHUIST. 



265 



Could we but climb where Moses stood, 
And view the landscape o'er, 

Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood, 
Could fright us from the shore." 

Bonn, March 9th, 1853. 



IX.— OLIVET.— A LOOK AFTEK CHRIST. 
Zech. xiy. 4; Matt. xxt. 1 ; xxiv. 3 ; xxvi. 30 ; Luke xix. 29 ; 
John yiii. 1 ; Acts i. 12. 

Here we are, after our labours and travels, in full tealtli of 
body and of mind, and surely the Lord has more than 
rewarded us for them all, by this view of the ancient city. 
I cannot describe on paper, beloved in the Lord, the over- 
whelming associations, and birrning thoughts, \^^th which 
the mind is filled and overwhelmed upon this sacred spot. 
All is new to us in this old world, and we feel as if sur- 
rounded with the men of former generations, while monu- 
ments of the most holy antiquity, standing or lying around 
you, arrest the attention, and direct your thoughts to the 
various ages and nations which, like sands on the shore of 
the boundless bottomless ocean of eternity, have passed over 
this now wasted, but once delightsome land. Beautiful 
though in ruins. There she is before us — that sombre city, 
the desolate widow clothed in her weeds nearly two thousand 
years, and having Kttle hope of soon lajong them off. I 
shall not speak much of the scenes that meet the eye from 
the summit of this mount — the valley of Jehosaphat, the 
garden of Grethsemane, the mosque of Omar — the dun, lifeless 
walls, houses, and dilapidated monuments of various kinds — 
in the distance the mountains of Moab, the valley of the 
J ordan, and the waters of the Dead Sea. We follow Jesus 



266 



OLH^ET. A LOOK AFTER CHRIST. 



from this mount to His and our home in the skies, and faith 
gives us eagle-glances of those mansions of glory, which He 
is gone to prepare. Here He stands, the risen Head, the 
Redeemer of the world, sui-rounded by his disciples, and 
about to bid them his last farewell. He is the victor now for 
evermore. Sin, Satan, and the world, are all conquered, and 
the light of life brought into the regions of the tomb. He 
is the visible, real, immortal king. It is no vision. 'We feel 
His hands, we see His woimds, we hear His voice in the same 
accents of immortal tenderness as before He died, the same 
in love and all the lineaments of moral beauty, but 0, how 
changed ! The corruptible has put on incorruption, and the 
mortal is now clothed with immortality. His last word is peace 
— ^' my peace give I unto you;'' and, lo! while His hands are 
stretched out in blessing, He rises before our eyes from this 
very mount, and ascends visibly to His native heaven. The 
heavens are now opened for all believers, and our foreruimer 
has taken possession in om- behalf. 0, most blessed hope ! 
0, when shall the dim eye of faith yield to the full beatific 
vision of our adorable master? His feet shall yet stand on 
this moimt, it seems (Zech. xiv.) when he comes in the glory 
of the Father to judge the world. He shall visit once more 
His blood-redeemed world, and His ancient city and people 
shall not be forgotten. In the meantime, brother, let our 
hope and faith be in Him, for there is no other name given 
under heaven by which we can be saved. 

" Triumph! ihr Ghiisten, freuet ench 
Der Tod ist nim bezTrungeii, 
TTii' haben Theil an Jesu Eeich, 
Er hat es iins errungen. 
Auf, bringt ihm Dank und Lobegesang ! 
Wii- gehii dui'ch Kampf und Leiden 
Mit ihm zu seinen Freuden." 
Bonn, 2IarcJi Uth, 1S53. (Transcnjjt.) 



THE APOCRYPHA. 



267 



X.— THE APOCEYPHA. ITS EEEOES COMPAEED WITH THE 
HOLY SCEIPTUEES IN A NUMBEE OF PASSAGES. 

Juditli i., compared with 2 Kings xxiv. 1 ; Jer. xxyii. 6 ; 
Dan. i. 1 ; iii. 1. 

— ix. 2, compare Gren. xlix. 5 — 7 ; 1 Thes. v. 15 ; Gen. 

ix. 5, 6 ; Ex. xx. 13. 

— ix. 10, see 1 Pet. u. 1; Job xxyii. 4; Eph. iv. 22; 

Jer. ix. S ; Proy. xxix. 5 ; Jer. xxyiii. 15 ; 
Ps. 1. 19 ; y. 7. 

— ix. 5, see Rom. iii. 8. 

— X. 13, see Proy. xxiy. 29. 

— xi. 5, see 1 Thes. ii. 5 ; Ps. xl. 5 ; Iii, 4, 5 ; Proy. xiii. 

5 ; Jerem. ix. 3. 

— xi. 12, see Ex. xx. 7 ; Jer. xiy. 14 ; Ps. Iii. 4, 5. 

— xii. 15, comp. Proy. xi. 22 ; 1 Cor. yi. 18 ; 1 Th.es. y. 

22 ; Rom. xiii. 13 ; Eph. iy. 29. 
Wisdom of Solomon, iii. 12 — 14, compare Rom. iii. 23, 24. 

— iii. 16 — 18, compare Ezek. xyiii. 2 — 4, 20 ; Jer. 

xxxi. 29, 30. 

— yii. 17 — 24, compare Proy. xxx. 2; Job xxyiii. 2, 6. 

— yiii. 10, compare John yii. 18. 

— yiii. 19, 20, compare Gen. yiii. 21 ; Job xiy. 4; Ps. 

xiy. 2, 3 ; Proy. xxii. 15 ; John iii. 6 ; Matt, 
xy. 19. 

— X. 3, 4, compare Gen. yi. 5 — 7. 

— X. 15, compare Ps. li. 7 ; John iii. 6 ; Rom. iii. 28 ; 

1 Kings yiii. 46 ; Proy. xxii. 15 ; Gen. xxxii. 9 ; 
xxxiii. 3 ; Deut. ix. 13, 27. 

— xii. 10, 11, compare Rom. iii. 9 — 12. 

— xiii. 6, compare Rom. i. 22, 23. 

— xiy. 15, compare Rom. i. 18 — ^20. 



268 



THE APOCRYPHA. 



Wisd. of Sol., xyi. 9, compare Ex. yiii. 24. 

— xvi. 17, 18, 22, compare Ex. ix. 23—25. 

— xvi. 20, 21, compare Ex. xvi. 31 ; I^mnb. xi. 8 ; 

xxi. 5. 

— xvii. 4 — 6, 9, 11, 15, compare Ex. x. 22. 

Tobias iv. 11, 12, compare Matt. xvi. 26 ; Gral. i. 8 ; 1 Pet. i. 

18; 1 John i. 7 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 3; Rom. iii. 23; 
Prov. xix. 17. 

— V. 7, 19, compare Jolm viii. 44. 

— vi. 9, Deut. xviii. 10 ; Matt. xvii. 21 ; 1 Jolm iii. 8 ; 

Eph. vi. 11 ; Jas. iv. 7. 

— xii. 9, compare Gfal. i. 8 ; Rom. iii. 24, 28 ; Gal. ii. 

16 ; Rom. iv. 5, 6 ; ix. 6 ; Gal. v. 4 — 6. 
Ecclesiasticus i. 16, compare Ps. li. 7. 

— iii. 4 ; Deut. xxvii. 26 ; Jas. ii. 10 ; Acts x. 43 ; 1 

Pet. i. 18, 19 ; Epb. i. 7 ; ii. 8, 9 ; Ps. Hx. 8, 9 ; 
1 John i. 7. 

— iii. 16, 17; Matt. v. 18; x. 37. 

— iii. 33, compare Acts iv. 12 ; x. 43 ; xvi. 31 ; Rom. 

iii. 20, 24, 28 ; Gal. ii. 16 ; iii. 10 ; 1 Pet. i. 18, 
19 ; Jer. xliii. 24, 25 ; Eph. ii. 8, 9. 

— xii. 4, 5, compare Luke vi. 33 ; Matt. v. 44, 45. 

— xii. 9, 10, compare Zech. vii. 10. 

— XV. 14, 15, compare Phil. ii. 13 ; 2 Cor. iii. 5 ; Gen. 

vi. 5. 

— XXV. 9, 10, compare Job xxxi. 29 ; Matt. v. 43, 44 ; 

Prov. XXV. 21, 22 ; Rom. xii. 20, 21. 

— XXV. 34, compare Matt. xix. 6—9 ; Mai. ii. 15 ; 1 

Cor. vii. 10, 11. 

— xxix. 15, compare Ps. xii. 2, 3 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 3. 

— xxxi. 25, compare Gal. v. 19 — 21. 

— xxxi. 33, compare Prov. xxxi. 4 ; xxiii. 31, 32. 

— xxxii. 5 — 9, compare 1 Cor. xv. 32, 33. 



THE APOCRYPHA. 269 

t 

Ecclesiasticus, xxxiii. 27, compare Col. iv. 1 ; Eph. yi. 9. 

— xxxY. 5, compare Heb. ix. 26 ; x. 14. 

— xxxYiii. 17, 18, compare Matt. yI. 17. 

— xxxYiii. 25 — 39, compare Deut. xi. 18 — 21 ; I^eliem. 

Yiii. 3 ; ix. 3 ; xiii. 1 ; Jer. xxxiy. 16 ; John y. 
39; Matt. xxiv. 15. 

— xIyi. 23, compare Is. Yiii. 19 ; Ps. 1y. 23 ; Luke 

XYl. 31. 

— 1. 27, 28, compare Ex. xxiii. 4, 5 ; Matt. y. 44 ; Eom. 

xii. 14 ; 1 Pet. ii. 23 ; 1 Jolm iii. 15. 

— li. 18, compare Gren. Yiii. 21. 
BariicL. i. 1, compare Jer. xliii. 5 — 7. 

— i. 3, compare 2 Kings, 25, 27. 

— i. 8, compare Ezra, i. 7 ; Jer. xxvii. 16. 

1 Maccab. ii. 44, compare 2 Cor. x. 4. 

— ii. 52, compare Gen. xy. 6. 

2 Maccab. ii. 4 — 8, compare Jer. iii. 16 ; Is. iv. 6 ; Heb. 

iY. 1. 

— xiY. 37, 41 — 46, compare Acts i. 25 ; ProY. xxiv. 8. 
Prayer of Manasses, Yerse 8, compare 1 Jobn i. 8 ; Pom. iii. 

10, 12 ; Job iY. 18 ; Rom. y. 12 ; Gen. xxLy. 7 ; 
xxYi. 18, 24 ; Nahum i. 3 ; Ps. xiy. 3 ; cxliii. 2. 

These are a number of the passages in the Apocrypha 
which seem at least to contradict both the spirit and the 
letter of the sacred Scriptures. It is true some of them are 
capable of a scriptural interpretation ; others, howcYor, are 
utterly inconsistent with the truth of the sacred Scriptures, 
as well as the character and perfections of God. 



Bo7m, March IbtJi, 1858. 



270 



RINGING OF BELLS. 



XL— KINGING OF BELLS. 

There is sometliing pleasing, and perhaps soothing, in the 
slow solemn tolling of chui'ch bells. In the sjmibolic, thea- 
trical religious system of the Papacy, the ringing of bells 
occupies a conspicuous place. The churches are surmounted 
by bells, the priestty mummeries of the mass are inter- 
spersed with ringing of bells, the incense ascends to heaven 
through solemn sounds, the people are prepared for the 
grand idolatrous act of adoring their wafer-god by tinkling 
sounds, spirits are charmed by them, demons frightened, and 
rain, fruitful seasons, and all blessings procui'ed by them. 
The advantages of this system are various. 1st. Their super- 
stition is forced upon the public attention. 2nd. The prac- 
tices of daily Kfe are insensibly associated with the solem- 
nities of religion. 3rd. It adds another to the many parts 
of external pompous symbolism of which that sensual reli- 
gion is mainly composed. In Popish countries the ringing 
of bells is nearly perpetual. In Malta it is a perfect nuisance. 
Here in Bonn, it is frequent, but not disagreeable. I have 
been nowhere where the bells, the crosses, the images, and 
all the monuments of the dominant superstition are so abund- 
ant as in Malta. 

Funera plango, fulgiira frango, sabbata pango; 
Excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos. 

They are of heathen origin, being used by the priests in 
the worship and sacrifices of the gods. They were first used 
for churches in Ital}^, where the cast-ofi' garments of pagan- 
ism were fitted up for Christian use. The popes baptized 
them, in order to make them Christian, as the Hindoos, by 
rites and ceremonies, transfuse the Deity into the images 



TITLES OF HONOLTl. 



271 



before they become proper objects of veneration. Tlie pa- 
pists, indeed, do the same. One of Schiller's most celebrated 
poems is the one on " The Bell." 

" Von dem Dome 
Scliwer und bang 
Tont die Glocke 
Grabgesang. 

Ernst begleiten ihre Trauerschlage 
Einen Wandrer anf dem letzten Wege." 

Bonn, March 18th, 1853. 



Xn.— TITLES OF HONOUR.— A SUPPER PARTY. 

This evening spent in a large gentleman party. There 
were seventeen of the celebrities of Bonn present, — ^princes, 
professors, lawyers, and pastors. The invitation was at eight 
o'clock, and on entering, tea was handed round; not like 
our strong, national, noble tea, which it does the soul good 
to see ; so finely mixed, such golden cream — as a whole, so 
glorious and delightful ; but the tea of Germany (they know 
nothing of tea, the ignoramuses ; it is, indeed, " Thinvasser") 
thin, blue, and transparent as the clouds. 'No body in it, 
nor soul either — water bewitched ; no cream ; the sugar you 
help yourself to with the fingers ; one cujd is enough, and 
more than enough. The talk goes on, however, and various 
little groups discuss all sorts of subjects except politics and 
religion, which, by mutual consent, seem to be laid aside. 
There was one Popish professor amongst us, a good-natured, 
fat-faced, well-to-do sort of a lawyer, who prefers pudding 
to the pope any day. At half-past nine, supper. We have 
no ladies to lead down, and yet we go down. So in the East 



272 



TITLES OF HONOUR. 



they can go to clinner without bells. Strange ! JS'o won- 
der Paley says, " We are only a bundle of habits." The 
table is brilliant, and the supper excellent. The dishes are, 
however, all carried round, so that there is no carving, nor 
anything else to interrupt the steady current of eating, 
drinking, and talking. The courses are very many, and you 
continue at table till half-past eleven, which is no bad sort of 
recreation; but the Rhine wines are salubrious, and none 
seems touched. There w^ere many subjects of conversation ; 
but that one which excited the most ridicule, laughter, and 
contempt, was " Giessen and its titles. One man, it was 
said, opened a shop for selling doctorships in ; another has 
himself appointed as agent for foreign affairs. These titles, 
they said, were despised in England, and an M.D. from 
Giessen did not prevent an examination in Britain. I rarely 
am in any company where England is not often on the tapis ; 
her parliament, her colonies, her riches, her statesmen, her 
laws, her devotion to religion, mingled, at times, with random 
shots of ridicule at John Bull's paunch, his predilection for 
roastbeef (I saw in an Athens' bill of fare the same celebrated 
po(jj3£(j)), his fat, stupid sense of justice, when he once gets 
the idea of tvhaf is Just, his proud aristocratic gait, and his 
calm, indifferent hospitality to tyrants who trample on their 
subjects, and patriots who seek to dethrone their kings. 
When grace is said, it is always in silence, like the Quakers' 
prayers, or perhaps not so good. I heard of a young gentle- 
man who said, when he went into a church he put his hat 
to his face, and just counted ten before he sat down. How- 
ever, at German meals you may do as you please, but the 
time of silence is about the time you coidd count ten. Ee- 
turning thanks is not known, but on rising, each bows to his 
neighbour, and says " Gesegnete Mahlzeit :" may your meal 
be blessed. In Damascus the Arabs say \y^^ hinian — a good 



LONGING AFTER JESUS. 



273 



digestion. The New Testament knows nothing of formal 
thanks after meals. The great fashionable parties break up 
about twelve o'clock, and the common ^every-day parties at 
ten. IN'obody is invited to any meal but supper. It is the 
time of state, friendship, and ceremony. ^ 

Bonn, March I9th, 1853. 



XIII.— LONGING AFTEE JESUS. 

Jesus ! Thou glorious object of our adoration and praise ; 
we find in thee all that the full soul can imagine of beauty, 
glory, and excellency, and all the grace, peace, and mercy 
which the empty soul needs. The heart longs after thee ; 
the eye faints to behold thy glory ; the ear is never weary 
with the music of thy name. How dark, gloomy, and worth- 
less does the world, our own wisdom, all human science, 
appear to the eye that is accustomed to behold thy cross, and 
thy crown, thy doing and dying for sinful man. - In thee 
we have all. There is no deficiency in thy fulness, no spot 
in thy celestial brightness, no weakness in thy love, no 
change in the movements of thy calm, pure, boundless com- 
passion to the sons of men. Nature fails us, the nearest and 
dearest leave us, our loveliest, brightest, die away under our 
eyes, and leave us in the silence and solitude of abandonment 
and despair ; our pleasures leave the sediment of despond- 
ency and discontent ; our hopes break like bubbles, just when 
we would seize them ; our life is a vapour, and our labour 
vanity, and vexation of spirit. Thou, 0 Jesus ! art our 
hope, our life, and our home ; thou remainest, and thy years 
shall not fail. 0, how our souls long after thee ! What joy 
to see thee, to meet thee once more, thou dear Redeemer and 

T 



274 



THE GRIEVOUS WOUND. 



dying Lamb. Thou art the only hope of this poor fallen 
world. 

Eedeemer and head, 

Life from the dead, 
We gaze at thy throne in glory ; 

Where the hosts of the blest, 

In their endless rest. 
Throw thek crowns of gold before thee. 

See the angels of might, 

From theu' thrones of light, 
Surrounding the victor's throne ; 

With their songs of love. 

In the coui'ts above, 
And raptures before unknown. 

O glory for ever ! 

To thee, the life-giver ! 
And light of the ransomed race ; 

We hail thy rising light from afar, 

And welcome the beams of the morning star, 
With its radiance of mercy and grace ! 
Bonn, March 2Srd, 1853. 



XIY.— THE GRIEVOUS WOUND. Jee. xxx. 12, 17. 

There is no wound so deep as the serpent sting of sin, which 
festers in our hearts and poisons all the fountains of our life. 
Hast thou never felt this wound ? Then thou art worse than 
wounded, thou art dead, thou art past feeling, and there seems 
to be little more hope for thee. 0 how deep the wound ! 
That poison-bite of the old serpent, like a running sore from 
Adam, sends forth over the world its streams of vileness, deep 
and dark as hell. But may none escape ? JS'one, none, we 
are all serpent-bitten, bruised incurably, and for ever undone, 



GOOD FRIDAY. 



275 



if eternal mercy pity us not m our lost estate. Man, angels, 
the strength, wisdom, and glory of the wide creation, cannot 
medicate this malady, for eternal immutable law gives the 
poison its strength, and keeps the wound open. But bound- 
less mercy may deliver what boundless power holds in bondage, 
and hence it is written (17th verse), " I will heal thee of thy 
wounds, saith the Lord.'' How ? Through his own wounds, 
his own sacrificial death (Is. liii. 5; 1 Peter ii. 24). These 
woimds in his hands plead for our poor fallen sin- stricken 
nature, all lost, wounded, rmned, as it is ; his feet were nailed 
to the tree, his head was crowned with prickly thorns, and 
his heart pierced with the cruel spear. Oh, how many voices 
of love and forgiveness flow from his glorious person, and 
they all plead for the poor, weak, wounded soul. Thy wound 
is deep, but His is deeper ! From that opened bleeding side 
flows the ocean of Jehovah's everlasting mercy — and it flows 
for thee. Here is balm and balsam for the whole world. He 
can and will heal thy wounds, if thou trustest in Him, and 
He will make thee the bearer of His cross on earth, and the 
heir of His glory in heaven. 

Jesus, Savioiir, full of gi-ace, 
See me in my helpless case, 
Wounded, in my sin I lie. 
Heal, oh heal me, or I die. 

Thou hast borne the cross and pain ; 
Thou hast borne my curse and shame; 
Thou art good, and canst forgive ; 
Thou hast died that I might live. 



XV.— GOOD FEIDAY. 

1. A Popish Custom. The Eomanists here do not keep Good- 
Friday in any special manner ; their shops are open, they 



276 



THE lord's supper. 



attend to their ordinary business ; there is indeed no bell 
rung either among Protestants or Papists, for the bell is the 
emblem of jo}". 

" Freude hat mir Gott gegeben ! 
Seliet ! wie ein goldner Stern 
Aus der Hiilse, blank und eben, 
Sell alt sich der Metallne kern." 

The Papists give as a reason for not keeping Good- Friday 
that the day is too high, too holy, too miapproachably glorious 
for mortal man to attempt its celebration. On the other hand 
the Protestants keep it regularly, indeed ten times as strictly 
as the Lord's day ; all is still and solemn, and the shops 
uniyersally closed; the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is 
celebrated, and the day spent in rehgious exercises. 

2. The LorcVs Supper described. The churches here haye 
no pictures ; in the north of Grermany, and indeed among the 
strict Lutherans, pictures and paintings are as common in the 
churches as among the Papists, but nobody pays any attention 
to them. Here the reformed doctrines preyailed among the 
reformers, and pictures disappeared. See, howeyer, oyer the 
pulpit stands a large colossal cross ; one of gold, the gift of 
the Prince of Prussia, stands on the altar or communion table, 
and on each side of it bui^ns a large candle ; the young com- 
municants haye been preyiously prepared, as with us, and con- 
firmed, as in the Church of England. A sermon is preached on 
the subject of the crucifixion, and after warnings and exhorta- 
tions, as yith us, the people are inyited to commimion of the 
last supper. They communicate neither sitting nor kneeling, 
but standing, and the emblems of His body are in the foiTa of 
wafers, as among the Papists, and laid in the mouth of the 
recipients by the hand of the minister. Hence two pastors 
are necessary for this solemnity ; one stands at the one end of 



SOLEMN THOUGHTS. 



277 



the altar and gives tlie breaden wafers, and the other at the 
opposite end to distribute the wine. The former says to each 
indi^ddual, Take ye, eat ye, this is my body which was 
broken for you and the other, as he holds the cup to the 
lips of each individual, says " This cup is the New Testament 
in my blood, shed for the remission of sins unto many, drink 
ye all of it." This renders the service very long, and on the 
whole not by any means so solemn as with us. The organ 
plays, and the congregation sings the whole time. Then after 
exhortation and prayer the -solemnity ends. 

3. Solemn Thoughts. How great, how glorious, yea how 
terrible is the doctrine of an incarnate God ! My soul, bow 
down in adoring love before the throne of thy Grod and creator ; 
think of I^azareth and the angel- salutation ; of Bethlehem 
and the angel songs of glory to Grod and peace to men ; of 
Gralilee, where his wonderful ministry manifested the footsteps 
of almighty power and grace ; of Grethsemane and his agony 
and bloody sweat ; of Calvary and the awful sacrifice which 
expiated the sin of the world ; of the cold dark grave where 
he lay, my soul, for thee, that he might taste the bitterness 
and overcome the sharpness of death ! 0, holy Lamb of God, 
didst thou sufier all and die for me ? Was my poor dark soul 
so dear to thee, 0 thou holy bleeding Lamb ! So then, 0 my 
Saviour and King, take my heart, life, and all that I have 
and own, and let it all and ten times more, twice told if I had 
it, be dedicated to thee. Thou art worthy, and to thy holy 
name be the praise and glory for evermore. Amen. 



4. HYMNUS PASCHALIS. 

Plaudite coeK ! 
Eideat aether! 
Suminus et imus 
Gaudeat orbis ! 



OSTERLIED. 

Jubelt ilu' Himmel, 
Lachelt ilu: Liifte, 
Jauchzet der Erde 
Hohen und Griifte ! 



AN EASTER HYMN. 



Transivit atrae 
Turba procellse 
Subiit almas 
Gloria palmaB 



Drohende Schauer 
Schiwanden den Trauer; 
Schauert daroben 
Palmen erboben. 



Surgite yerni, 
Surgite flores, 
Germina pictis, 
Sui'gite campis. 
Teneris mistse 
Violis rosse 
Candida sparsis 
Lilia caltbis. 



Blumen des Lenzes 
Dringt aus dem Boden, 
Spriesset, ihi-' Keime 
Wacbset ibr' Lobden ; 
Kosen, die zarten 
Veilcben sicb paarten, 
Nelken, die friscben 
Lilien dazwiscben. 



Currite plenis, 
Carmina venis ! 
Fundite laetum 
Barbita metmm; 
Nam que revixit 
Sicuti dixit 
Pius illaesus 
Funere Jesus ! 



Herzen erscbwellet, 
Lieder entquellet ! 
Froblicber Feier 
Tone die Leier : 
Cbrist ist erstanden 
Aus Todesbanden ; 
Was er gelebret 
Hat er bewabret ! 



Plaudite montes, 
Laudite fontes, 
Resonent valles, 
Eepetant coUes ; 
"Jo, revixit 
Sicuti dixit, 
Pius illaesus 
Funere Jesus." 



Berge lob sin get, 
Quellen erklinget, 
Hiigel hallt wieder, 
Tbaler, die Lieder ; 
" Cbrist bat bewabret 
Was er gelebret 
Aus Todesbanden 
Ist er erstanden." 



AN EASTER HYMN. 

Sing, sing to bis glory. 
Ye angels of ligbt, 
Ye valleys and mountains, 
Ye stars of tbe nigbt. 



HIS TOMB. 



279 



The tempest is over, 
The battle is past, 
And the shout of the victor 
Is heard on the blast. 

Ye flowers of the forest. 

Ye fruits of the plain ; 

Kise, rise fi'om your slumbers, 

'Tis summer again ; 

Eise, sweet smelling roses 

And lilies so fair. 

And scent with your odours 

The earth and the air. 

O joy everlasting ! 
The multitude stands, 
To welcome the victor, 
With harps in their hands; 
Lo ! he that departed 
Eeturns as he said ; 
The loved one, the lost one. 
Is risen from the dead ! 

Praise him ye mountains, 
Praise him ye plains ; 
Ye valleys and fountains 
Ke-echo the strains. 
" He that departed, 
Eeturned as he said ; 
The loved one, the lost one, 
Is risen from the dead !" 

Bonn, March ^UJi, 1853. 



XVI.— HIS TOMB. 

Lord Jesus, thou didst lie in tlie tomb of Joseph, that thou 
mightest fulfil the Scriptures, and for my sake overcome the 



280 



HIS TOMB. 



power of death. "No sin stained that body, which the promise 
of thy Father embalmed, that it could not see corruption (Ps. 
xvi.) : and as a free and willing victim, thou didst give thy- 
self to the embrace of death. In human form thou didst 
conquer the enemy of mankind, in temptation didst overcome 
the tempter, through simplicity of faith the wiles of the 
devil, through death him that had the power of death, that 
thou mightest deliver us from the bondage of sin and corrup- 
tion. It is no more so very dark and cold and gloomy, for 
thou hast brought into it the light of life. There didst 
thou lie, 0 my Lord, in the weakness and obstrictions of 
death ; so cold, so still, so silent. Thy noble heart was still, 
and thy tongue could speak the words of love no more. 0, 
deep and noble love ! Most pure and spotless sacrifice ! Thou 
hast followed the destroyer through all his wanderings, and 
met and resisted all the temptations human nature can be 
subjected to. Thou hast touched and cured our weakness, 
and as a good captain gone before us into the battle, that our 
hearts might not fail nor our hands become slack. Here was 
the triumph of the enemy celebrated for a time. This grave 
shows the depth and fidness of the curse, as well as the power 
of Satan, for here, O Lord of life and glory, thou didst lie ! 
Here sia and the law, and death and Satan, aU thought their 
triumph complete, and their reign everlasting : the sepulchre 
was sealed, and the watch set ! But their dominion is broken, 
and thou hast led them captive at thy chariot wheels. Let 
us follow thee, 0 Lord Jesus, and bear thy cross in whatever 
way our weak faith and love may enable us to do ; nor 
would we fear to die, for thou livest, 0 Lamb of Grod, and 
Saviour of the world ; nor would we fear the guilt of trans- 
gressions, for Thou hast carried them all with thee, and left 
them in the land of forgetfulness ; yet would we weep over 
the sins which brought Thee so low, and, through thy grace. 



travelling; notices; national hints. 281 

hate and forsake them. Holy Jesus, keep us mindM of thy 
precious death and burial. 

Bonn, March 26th, 1853. 



XVII.— TKAVELLING ; NOTICES ; NATIONAL HINTS. 

One tires of travelling, and like the hunted hare longs for 
some quiet den where he can live and die in peace. I am 
weary of it, and long for rest. I have seen the J ordan, the 
Nile, the Tiber, the Seine, the Danube, the Elbe, and the 
arrowy Ehine, and the wide districts that lie between; and 
the various forms of these nationalities, the men, the moun- 
tains, the cities, the plains, their customs, constitutions, 
science, and civilisations, rise up in my memory like dim, half- 
defined, cloudy images, a wild, strange, beautifal phantasma- 
goria of the real, not less wonderful than idealities of poets 
and romancists. There is some difference between stepping 
upon a donkey in Damascus and into a railway in London ; 
but the former is on the whole, more poetical and picturesque 
(see the goat in Campbell's Rhetoric) ; between the tinkling 
of bells on the necks of camels in the desert, and the deafening 
noise of spindles, wheels, furnaces, and steam engines in the 
British Isles ; between the rain, storms, and cloudy sky of the 
JN'orth, and the bright blue sunny heaven of the patriarchs 
and prophets. Characteristic and instructive are the modes 
and manners of nations, and we may trace nationality as 
readily in their salutations as any thing else. James meets 
John at the Jordan, and bowing reverently, and kissing 
cheeks and forehead, exclaims, " How is thy majesty, how 
is thine excellency, how is thy honour," &c. Which he 
appKes also to his tents, horses, donkeys, and all his possessions, 



282 



travelling; notices. 



the wives alone excepted (nemo me impune lacessit ; see also 
Lacessere pugnam, Liv. iii. 36) ; to all whicL. John replies, 
with great and lengthened formality, "Glory be to God, I am 
well, mabsoot {outstretched, laid out at ease on his mat), my 
camels are well,'' &c., all of which he repeats fully and re- 
peatedly. How much have we here of the East? Their 
pomposity, swelling words which mean nothing (he says when 
you enter, "My house is thy house; all I have is thine; 
come forward"), their love of ease, and their simple natural 
character; they say " thou," "thine," "thy," " thee," like 
the true Quakers, which they are indeed as to natural beau- 
tiful simpKcity. You meet an EngKshman; he gives no 
kiss (being too far north I suppose), but he gives you a noble 
shake of the hands, which sends affection thrilling through 
your veins ; " How do you do ?" "How do you do ?" And 
he thus contrives to show in the monosyllable do, twice in the 
shortest form of salutation possible, a true image of that 
active isle where do do do is the order of the day ; that bee- 
hive where the drones are most surely put to death; the 
workshop of nations where doing doing doing marks the entire 
population from the peer to the peasant. In fact, the private, 
religious, and political life of Britain is nothing but an ever- 
lastiag conjugation of the verb to do-, as for being or the 
verb to he, they know nothing of it, and you must seek it in 
the East. Thus the "How do do" of a long haired dandy 
has its meaning, and shows the way the wind blows. The 
German says, " How goes it with you." "With the slow Ger- 
man the world wags, and he lets it wag ; he only asks how ? 
He lets the nation take its course, but he will complacently 
inquire what direction it takes. So in parting John Bull 
says, " Farewell," &c., " may you have a good journey ; " and 
justifies the adage of Napoleon, " Where wood swims I find 
these English." "These," say the Arabs, "are the mad 



NATIONAL HINTS. 



283 



Englisli lords, who go tlirougL. the world searching for old 
stones and inscriptions to give us gold for them.'* This John 
Bull does as long as he can, and when there is nothing more 
to doy he shakes his head furiously (0 caput insanabile, &c., 
or Fcenum habet in cornu, Hor.), raises his tail, and takes off 
through the world ! He must be doing or ivay-faring. The 
German says in parting, " Live well." He is quiet, he is con- 
tent with life if he is allowed to live ; he finds in his philo 
Sophies and transcendentalisms, energy and excitement enough. 
He wishes you to live well. He seeks rest, quiet indulgence 
in his easy speculations. The Frenchman, dancing half his 
time between earth and sky, says, " How do you carry your- 
selfV^ He is a light buoyant little sprite, not nivial nor 
pluvial, but ventose. When he gets nobody to carry him he 
carries himself. Thus the French natural character is self- 
poised, borne up by internal heat. The Italian says, Good 
morning, senior, how do you stand Standing is his stan- 
dard; the erect posture, the proud gait of the old Roman 
still cleaves to him, and however prostrate he may lie under 
papal and political oppression, he has pride in his poverty, 
and the faint glimmering of a noble destiny scintillates from 
his " How do you stand." As to the forms of address, polite- 
ness has a very various appetite. The Arabs say " thou,^* 
"ye^ The English say to an individual, "How do you do." 
The German says to his fellow-traveller, " How do they do." 
And in Spain and Italy, in the upper classes of society, James 
says to John, "How doessAedo?" Much Hke the High- 
landers in Walter Scott. This subject is far from exhausted. 
These are little traces of the great lines of character and 
action which nations have formed for themselves. Language 
is indeed the true vein that leads us into the sparkling ore 
of the national mind. 

Bonn, March 27th, 1853. 



284 



THE jews; recapitulation. 



XVIIL— THE JEWS ; EECAPITULATION. 

Is there no sign of Kfe ? No shaking among the dry bones ? 
I see very little. The reformed Jews hear, and then tell 
you all religions are good and useful ; the true idea in religion 
is God, all the rest is nimbus and form, to be dispensed with 
or retained at pleasure. The old Talmudical Jews, who have 
some veneration for the Old Testament, are fierce and fanatical, 
nearly beyond the influence of argument and reason. And 
they are all equally worldly. Money is their idol, and they 
worship it with great assiduity. They receive tracts and 
Testaments willingly when they get them for nothing, but 
the colporteur has sold, during the month, almost nothing. 
Keith's Evidences were done, and so we had nothing but 
tracts and Bibles. Among the Jews we distributed about 
200 tracts on the person and work of the Messiah ; the 
colporteur visited 160 Jewish families, and gave me his report 
every Saturday evening. We distributed 4,000 Christian 
tracts and many Testaments in the Popish version. There 
was indeed a run upon us for tracts and Testaments, so that 
we had to forbear for a little. The priests were alarmed, and 
their altar denunciations were likely to attract the notice 
of the government. We ceased for a little, till the storm 
blew over. The police had to guard our houses, and the 
people were a good deal excited. During the month I held 
twenty- eight regular meetings and several occasional ones, 
and the services were attended as usual. We have the com- 
munion of the Lord's Supper regularly on the last Sunday of 
the month. I have often felt during the month that my 
strength was being spent in vain when preaching to twenty 
or thirty people in a room, when I might be addressing 
thousands, as I formerly was, in large churches and in the 
open air. But I try to guard these feelings in the conviction 



DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN. 



285 



of the diurch's prudence, and tlie overruling providence of 
God. Tlie inward, hidden life of God in the soul, is of more 
importance than any external privileges, and we are in general 
but bad judges of what may be most useful for the Church of 
God. 

Bonn, March SOth, 1853. 



XIX.— DAEKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN.— (A Hymn.) 

The sky is dark, 

And the earth is cold, 
The faith of the past 

Is waxing old. 

The hope that brightens 

The eye of faith, 
The love that lightens 

The pains of death. 

Is the martyr-life 

Of heroic men. 
Never on earth 

To return again ? 

Is not the stream 

That follows the flock. 
Full as when leaving 

The smitten rock ? 



Unchangeable love sheds its blessings abroad. 
And time cannot alter the nature of God ; 
But we, like the virgins, asleep in the night, 
Have forgotten the king, and the kingdom of light. 
The pastors say peace, and the people believe, 
And the spirits go forth with intent to deceive ; 
The nations are rising, the battle is rife, 
And the parties are pledged in the terrible strife. 



286 



DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN. 



Old tyi'anny trembles on tottering thrones, 
And liberty marches o'er mountains of bones; 
The past and the present in battle an-ay'd, 
Are invoking the powers of the world to their aid 
And both have agreed, in the midst of the fight, 
To cast off the yoke of the Gospel of Light ; 
The sky is dark, and the night is cold, 
The faith of the past is waxing old I 



ARABIC RHYMES. 



287 



APEIL. 



I. Arabic Ehymes for my Son; 1. For the Lord's Day; 2. Morning Hymn ; 
3. For taking medicine ; 4. Memorial Ehymes. II. The Arabic Language, 
Poetry; the Oriental Imagination. III. Old Associations. IV. Coin; 
Prayer Meeting, Popery. V. Brussels. VI. Waterloo. VII. The Ascen- 
sion. VIII. Mysteries of Nature; Electricity; the Force of Will. IX. 
The Spirit helpeth our Infirmities. X. Questions for the Pope. XI. Satur- 
day Evening ; Keflections. XII. God is Love. XIII. Ministry, diaKovta. 
XIV. 'O \6yoQ Tov ffravpov, XV. The Coming Glory, a Song. John 



xiv. 3. 



I.— AKABIC EHYMES FOE MY SON. 



FOR THE lord's DAY. 




w 




ARABIC RHYMES. 



MORNING HYMN. 



w 

Jyj 

FOR TAKING MEDICINE. 

M 

\^ ^ 

MEMORIAL RHYIVIES. 

Jri^ 
J^.^ J^.^ 



ARABIC RHYMES. 



289 



jJL^« jjj^. 'H;^ 

jjjk^ Jjt^ t^-^^ •-r-'^j^ 
^ ^3 

(^_^\ ^J^^)^ 
J:^- Jl^. 



II.— THE AKABIC LANGUAGE ; POETET; ORIENTAL 
IMAGINATION. 

As to compass, variety, and fulness, the Arabic yields to few 
languages either of the ancient or modern world. It has cases 
like the Greek and Latin, for marking three relations, nom., 
gen., and accusative ; it has a definite article which, like 
TO of the Greeks, can be used also relatively, and as an 
article, far more clear and distinct in its defining power ; it 
has three numbers, the singular, dual, and plural, in nouns, 
verbs, and adjectives. The order of arrangement in sentences 
the most simple imaginable, so that in assertions and simple 

T7 



290 



POETRY ; ORIENTAL IMAGINATION. 



sentences the copula is unnecessary, and never used. The 
verb is far from being perfect, but it is more perfect than that 
of the Grreek or Latin, and, with the exception of tense or time, 
has far greater variety. They have the active and passive 
voices as we have, and, in addition, they have a method of 
varying the original idea of the verb at pleasure, yet accord- 
ing to fixed and regular rules. They are thus able, by 
inserting and prefixing certain letters, to give ten additional 
varieties to the original signification of the root ! Their 
grammar is, therefore, one of the most difficult and compli- 
cated in the world. The Arabs assert that no man can master 
all the subtleties of the language without Divine inspiration ! 
As to richness of sound, fineness of tone, &c., we may think 
it yields to the Greek, but no Arab would admit it ; their 
strong gutturals they think the perfection of lingual beauty, 
and in this matter sixty millions of men will decide the 
principle of taste against you. All the verbs, nouns, and 
adjectives can be used as adverbs, and the same principle 
may be traced in the Hebrew. The literature of the language 
is not of much critical or classical value, except as an ex- 
ponent of the Oriental mind, and an index of culture and 
civilisation so difierent from our own. As to poetry the 
language is capable of wonderful varieties, and has been used 
by the Arabs on all conceivable occasions ; the best grammar 
(one of the best) in the language is written in poetry, and 
called Alfiet, or " Thousand," because the whole subject is 
expressed in a thousand lines or verses. De Sacy has written 
a commentary on it. They have more varieties of measure 
than the English, or even the German, and rhyme or similai' 
endings seems a necessary accompaniment. The Arabs are 
enchanted with sweet sounds, fine poetry, and eloquent diction. 
Whether the Arab ear be capable of distinguishing, and the 
tongue of expressing, refined music cannot be known, nor 



OLD ASSOCIATIONS. 



291 



has tlie connection between music and language ever been 
definitely traced. One thing is certain, that music does not 
seem to be a mark of perfection in language. The only great 
composers in Europe are the Grermans and Italians ; but we 
are far from allowing, on that account, that the language of 
Milton and Shakespeare is inferior to any other modern lan- 
guage. In Spain, every body sings, everywhere, and nearly at 
all times ; but the Spaniards have hardly any national music. 
There seems to be some unknown connection between language 
and music. The Italian is smooth, soft, and mellifluous ; the 
German hard, stilted, and ponderous, fitter for philosophy 
than love, and yet they are equally capable of musical ex- 
pression. As to the Arab imagination it is boundless ; no 
flash now and then, like our northern coruscations, but one 
continual blaze, which soars aloft and rarely, indeed, touches 
the earth. No dangers impede it, no difficulties entangle 
its wings, no improbabilities fetter the creative fancy, for there 
are genii, angels, demons, fairies, gouls, &c., ready at all 
times to relieve you, and the Oriental taste luxuriates in the 
gigantic, magnificent, and improbable. But you tire of such 
efforts ; we, at least, want the roast beef of common sense, 
before the strong Indian curries, and the fancy which we 
reKsh must be only as bright spangles on a dark ground. 



III.— OLD ASSOCIATIONS. 

On March 31st, late in the evening, as I sat writing some 
Arabic rhymes for my son, there walked in a strange looking 
person, wrapped up in a cloak, with a travelling cap on his 
head, and a good large moustache on his upper lip. I did 
not at first know him, but his voice revealed my former com- 
panion and fellow-labourer in Damascus, the Kev. S. Eobson. 

u 2 



292 



OLD ASSOCIATIONS. 



This visit was utterly unexpected, and our astonislunent was 
only equalled by our delight at meeting our old friend. He 
lias been nine years in Damascus, and returns to recruit a little 
in his native land ; and gave me an account of the state of the 
mission, which has had many changes since I left. The 
Jews there are as the Jews here, hard and impenetrable, and 
little can be made of them ; they seldom came. They show a 
disposition to be civil when spoken to. Daub is still coming 
and going, promising and scheming, when he can hope to 
make anything by it. They have prosperous schools for the 
Moslems, Christians, and Jews. Shatilas has forty children, 
of which thirty are Jews. The Americans have enlarged 
their mission very much, and built two fine houses at Blucan. 
The Eev. Mr. Barnet and Dr. Paulding's house was robbed 
and plundered by a person to whom they had showed great 
kindness, and after a long tedious journey the thief was 
taken in Scandaroon. Mr. Robson's house was also plundered 
while he was preaching, but he got the thief and his property 
after a few days. The Eev. Mr. Porter was waylaid by a 
robber, quite in the neighbourhood of Damascus, and only 
escaped by boldness and the fleetness of his horse. Their 
whole party was imprisoned in the region of Palmyra, and 
through the whole plain of Damascus plundering bands of 
Curds, soldiers, and other dangerous knights of the land, 
constantly pass and repass. Such is that great land, which 
was far the most valuable and productive province of the 
Roman empire. But the East rises up before me in all its 
varieties and grandeur. I forget the dangers, the sands, and 
the wild plunderers of the desert. 12 bD "f") ^32 "^^"^e 
forget all in the associations of the past, and the hopes of the 
future. It is the land of prophets, apostles, heroes, martyrs, 
and conquerors ! The land of love to the lost world ! He 
was there ! His cradle, His footsteps. His miracles, and His 



coln; prayer meeting; popery, etc. 293 

tomb! Bible customs are tbere still, and you feel your- 
self again in the days of tbe young world, with Abrabam, 
Isaac, and Jacob, among tbeir flocks and tents. 
Bonn, April 2)rd, 1853. 



IV.— COLN; PEAYER MEETING; POPEEY, ETC. 

Here we are in Cologne, and enjoying tbe friendship of 
Christians, as we did together in Damascus ; but how dif- 
ferent in all else save that love which unites and assimilates 
all things. Here the Papacy flourishes still, though deprived, 
since the days of IN^apoleon, of much of its external splen- 
dour, and no art is left unused which can attract the notice 
or charm the heart of man. The churches, the great cathe- 
dral at the head of them, are built to dazzle and attract ; 
their spires, their statuary, their brilliant altars, their paint- 
ings (some of Rubens^ among them), their violent contrasts 
in stone of fearful images of death and light attractive 
nymphs, cupids, Virgin Marys, and angels with wings; 
the wide spaces, lofty ceilings, and massive pillars, fill the 
mind with ideas of power, beauty, and majesty, so that you 
forget in these lofty feelings the heathenish idolatry which a 
priest is mumbling in a strange language before a Virgin two 
feet and a half long, dressed like a doll, and standing on the 
altar before you. Here, too, are all kinds of relics, from the 
three kings of the East (Matt. ii. 2, how do you know they 
were kings? and only three?), Gasper, Melchior, and Bal- 
thazzar (their names are well known), to the votive ofierings 
of some stupid devotees hung around the neck or arms of 
some winking doll. You see all, and get the benefit of all, for 
money. The town is large, dirty, and, Popery apart, quite 
uninteresting. It has no public buildings, no great works, 



294 



BRUSSELS. 



not even a bridge of stone over the Ehine. The cathedral, 
the churches, the relics, are the attractions for novelty-hunters 
and sight- seers. We took tea with Mr. Millard, agent for 
the Bible Society here ; he is very active, and it is pleasing to 
know that every week he sends forth 1,000 copies of the 
Scriptures from his depository. This is something in the 
midst of Popery ! 

" Waft, waft, ye winds, his story, 
And you, ye waters, roll, 
Till like a sea of glory 
It spread from pole to pole." 

He gathered a meeting for us of some forty people, to whom 
Mr. Eobson made known the state of things in the East, with 
regard to our mission and Christianity in general. 

Bonn, April bth, 1853. 



v.— BKUSSELS. 

Here we are after travelling all night, weary and fagged, 
and ready for the refreshing coffee, thrice welcome beverage 
to the traveller, especially when the stomach is (as Horace 
says. Sat. ii. 18) in the barking humour ; but it is 2^ English 
tea ! No ! That inimitable refresher (like a barrister's fee) is 
to all continental syrups and syllobusses (to be again classical), 
as ossa to a wart ! How the sight charms the eye ! And then 
the delicious swill from the large breakfast cup ! It is enough 
to make you forget your labours and lean your back, as the 
Easterns say, against the mountain satisfaction. This is 
rather a fine capital ; the palaces of the King and the Prince 
of Orange are handsome buildings, and the streets, squares, 
parks, and houses, are not unworthy of royal residence. It 
is not to be compared with Vienna, Berlin, or Hamburg. 



BRUSSELS. 



295 



The last is the commercial capital of Germany, and is alto- 
gether a very noble city. Brussels is historically interesting, 
as it played a conspicuous part in the wars of the ^Netherlands, 
the celebrated petitions of the Beggars, the wars of Alva and 
Parma, Spain's bloody instruments against religion and liberty. 
Indeed this land may be called the battle-place of Europe. 
Here the Counts Egmont and Horn were beheaded by Alva, 
before the Hotel de Yille, and here Anneke Hove was buried 
alive for her Calvinism ; the work of that mild, sweet- 
tempered, charitable body of men, the Jesuits. The priests 
here are very numerous. I met eleven between the railway 
and my hotel ; they all wear the same habit, viz., a three 
cornered very broad-brimmed hat, white or blue shirt, necks 
folded down, no neckerchiefs, long flowing robe, with girdle ; 
pantaloons or breeches buttoned from the foot to the knees, 
and shoes with bright silver buckles. Of course all is black ; 
they generally in railways mumble over some Latin prayer 
from their elegantly bound ritual prayer-book. They never 
awaken in you the feeling that they are educated, well- 
informed men ; they wear neither beard nor whisker, nor 
moustache of any kind, and the mysterious tonsure, like a little 
moon, glorifies their crowns. Such are the Belgian priests 
externally, what they inwardly are I know not. I only 
marvel what keeps 3,000 English in this dull city, which 
their presence has made dear enough. Protestantism is mak- 
ing considerable progress, both in the city and throughout 
the country at large. May the Lord our God break speedily 
the chains of all the enslaved idolatrous nations of the earth ! 

" Yes ! we trust the day is breaking, 
Joyful times are near at hand ; 
God, the mighty God, is speaking 
By his word in every land ; 

Mark his progress — 
Darkness flies at his command." 



296 



WATERLOO. 



There are several conyerted priests here who have large 
and increasing churches, wholly or mostly composed of con- 
verted Papists. This is truly encouraging, and all the 
splendour of crosses, altars, dresses, wax- candles, pictures, 
statues, and fabulous reKcs, set in jewels and gold, are felt to 
be a poor compensation for the gospel. 



YI.— WATEELOO ; MONUMENTS. 

Here we are on this celebrated field, which, with Marathon 
and Thermopylae, shines lustrously in the pantheon of uni- 
versal history, and raises the firmness and valour of the British 
soldier to an equality with that of the ancient Greeks. Here 
we are, after a drive of ten miles from Brussels ; pass on 
through this straggling village of Waterloo, and now we enter 
that of Mont St. Jean, equally straggling and insignificant. 
But see that house a little before you on the left hand ; that 
house, with its enclosures, was of importance to the Duke ; it 
is the farm of Mont St. Jean, and served as a kind of hospital 
for the wounded during the battle. How many brave men 
died within those walls ! Honour to the brave ! They died 
in the service of their country, and their deathless fame re- 
echoes eloquently in the ears of an Englishman from these 
forests, rocks, and dells. The roar of cannon has ceased, but 
every bush, and stone, and cottage, every valley, fountain, 
and field, is surrounded with a halo of traditions which appears 
to grow wider and brighter every year, and the wind of glory 
rushes on louder and swifter than ever. 

Hear what a sensible old church father says on the sub- 
ject— 



WATERLOO. 



297 



" Faraa, malum quo non aliud velocius ullum ; 
Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo. 
Parva metu primo; mox sese attollit in auras, 
Ingreditiu-que solo, et caput inter nubiJa condit." 

And every Briton exclaims (as lie listens to the snperlatives 
of his guides) with the crafty old Greek (Odys. ix. 20), 
KUL /iiov kXeoq ovpavov r//c£i, " and my glory, too, reaches up 
to heaven or, if you wish modern authority instead of 
ancient, Byron gives you sound advice and direction on the 
subject : 

"But glory's glory, and if you would find 
What that is — ask the pig who sees the wind." 

You can take this ad^dce at your leisure some day, in 
company with Thomas Moore, Esq., who when searching 
for a reKgion, was enabled, as the last and newest miracle of 
Father Newman's approval, 

" To teach an old cow paternoster, 
And whistle Moll Kow to a pig." 

In the meantime we leave the farmhouse of Mont St. 
Jean, and following the broad highway we ascend a very 
gentle elevation. Where are we now? In the centre of 
the British position. Behind us the road goes to Brussels, 
before us, to Genappe and Namur ; on either hand a small 
country road stretches out from the main road, nearly at 
right angles to it; this facilitated the movement of the 
troops. Here, then, in front of this by-road, and in the 
Httle valley behind it, Wellington had grouped, in the small 
compass of a mile and a half, an army of above fifty thou- 
sand men. Look straight along the road, at the distance of 
about a mile, and you see the white house, called La Belle 
Alliance; and, if your eyes be good, you may discern an 



298 



WATERLOO; MONUMENTS. 



Imperial figure mustering the guards for the final conflict — 
" Gentlemen, there is the road to Brussels To be sure it is, 
Sire ; but the roads are heavy this 18th of June, and the 
perfidious English don't know when they are beaten. See 
that farmhouse, some hundred perches before you, on the 
right side of the road : that is the farmhouse of La Haye 
Sainte, where such horrid butchery took place ; their ammu- 
nition failed, and its noble defenders were cut down to a 
man.. The French, however, could not keep it, as the 
British cannon rained upon it a continual tempest of grape 
shot (a dangerous kind of donner wetter). JS'ear this house 
of slaughter they show you the grave of the warlike life- 
guardsman, Shaw, who killed nine Frenchmen with his own 
hand, and like Achilles, sent many heroic souls prematurely 
to Orcus (Aioc erekd^To /3oi/X/y). Look now to the right 
of the field, and you observe the farmhouse of Hougomont. 
It is distant from La Haye Sainte 1,300 yards, stands directly 
on the branch road to Nivelles, and forms, in fact, the key 
of the British position ; all the efibrts of the French were 
exerted against it in vain. Their fierce attacks, their ter- 
rible artillery, their storming columns, prevailed not ; and 
the stern defenders issued forth only at the word of their 
illustrious commander, to swell the tide of victory, and chase 
the flying Gauls from the field of battle. These, then, are 
the main points of the battle-field; on these heights the 
British squares stood the entire day, rooted, as it were, in 
the soil, and resisting all attacks at the point of the bayonet ; 
over that little vaUey, at the distance of 500 yards, stood 
JN'apoleon and his Frenchmen. There were no tactics on 
either side. There stood the British army, on the road to 
Brussels, and Napoleon wished to dine there ! He must fight, 
and there is nothing but fighting for him. No manoeuvres 
any more. He is before that renowned infantry, which never 



THE ASCENSION. 



299 



was seen to yield, and wliicli has a dangerous manoeuvre of its 
own, viz., tlie rusli upon tlie enemy with the levelled bayonet. 
The whole battle, therefore, was one scene of butchery — one 
contiaued system of attacks and repulses, and showed, on 
the part of the attacking foe, only the common-place, bull- 
dog quality of seeking the enemy and assailing him in the 
readiest way. There are several monuments on the field. 
That great earthen mound, surmounted by the Belgic Lion, 
is 200 feet high, and contains the bones of friends and foes. 
From this mound you have a clear and distinct view of the 
whole field. See ; there is the pillar erected to the memory 
of Lieut. -Gen. Sir Alexander Gordon, and immediately over 
the way the Hanoverian obelisk, and far away in the distance 
you observe the monument of Prussia. This is the most 
simple and easily understood battle-field which I have seen. 
It is small, you can take it all in at a view ; and even the 
unprofessional spectator sees and comprehends in a moment 
every attack, and the object intended by it. 

" And Harold stands upon this place of skulls, 
The grave of France — the deadly Waterloo ! 
How in an hour the power which gave annuls 
Its gifts, transferring fame, as fleeting too ! 
In * pride of place,' here last the eagle flew, 
Then tore, with bloody talon, the rent plain. 
Pierced by the shaft of banded nations through; 
Ambitious life and labours all were vain ; 

He wears the shatter'd links of the world's broken chain," 



^11- — T^ Select ovv tov Qeov vxlxodeig. — (Acts IT. 33.) 
THE ASCENSION. 
Lord Jesus, my King and my Eedeemer, the joy of my 



300 



THE ASCENSION. 



heart, and tlie chief object of my longing desire ; thou art 
no longer the weak, dying, sin-bearing Lamb ; the Idng of 
terrors has done his worst upon thee, and the strongest man- 
sion of death could not hold thee bound. Thou art the life 
of the weary soul, the eternal life of every happy creature. 
Thou hast opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers, 
and from thy heavenly throne thou showerest down thy gifts 
upon men. Thou art worthy of all love and adoration, O 
thou Friend of sinners, and my chief and noblest desire is to 
please and glorify thee. In thee I am connected with 
heaven ; in thee my position is above the angels of glory ; 
in thee I have found the father of my spirit ; in thee, at 
last, the weary has found rest, and the wanderer a home. 
Seen from thy throne in heaven, how little the world and 
all its cares appear to my eyes. It is surrounded with the 
littleness of distance, and its decaying brightness can charm 
no more. Thou art my world, my heaven, and my all. 
Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon 
earth whom I desire beside thee. Be thou, 0 God, my guide 
through life, and my succour in the hour of death. 

Salutis humanse sator 
Jesu voluptas cordium 
Orbis redempti conditor 
Et casta lux amantium. 

** Quia victus es dementia, 
Ut nostra ferres crimina ? 
Mortem subires innocens 
A morte nos ut tolleres ? 

u Perrumpis infernum chaos ; 
Vinctis catenas detrahis; 
Victor triumph o nobili 
Ad dextram patris sedes. 



MYSTERIES OF NATTJRE. 



301 



" Te cogitat indulgentia 
Ut damna nostra sarcias ; 
Tuic^ue vultus compotes 
Dites beato lumine. 

" Tu Dux ad astra et semita, 
Sis meta nostris cordibus, 
Sis lacrymamm gaudium, 
Sis dulce vitse prsemiiun." 

Bonn, April llth, 1853. 



Vin.— MYSTEKIES OF NATUEE ; ELECTKIGITY; THE 
FOECE OF WILL. 

A strange report went the round of the papers here, and 
caused no little astonishment and amusement to the good 
people of Bonn. I disbelieved it, and consequently gave 
myself no trouble about it, until report after report, from 
all around me, made me determine to put the matter to the 
trial, and I must say my astonishment was never more 
excited in my life than by the results. You will understand 
the whole matter from the following description : — We took 
a small roimd table, whose leaf was about eighteen inches 
in diameter ; it stood on three legs, and is for setting a lamp 
or a large Bible upon — any round table will (I suppose) do 
equally well ; we sat, or stood around it, viz., l^ora, March- 
man, her governess, my son Francis, and myself. We laid 
the palms of the hands gently on the table, touching, but not 
pressing it; our thumbs and little fingers touched each 
other, forming thus a kind of circle. We said, our wish is 
that the table should move in a certain direction, viz., to- 
wards a piano, that stood at the distance of a few yards. 
We kept the circle complete for ten minutes, the hands still 
touching, but not pressing the table; we then broke the 



302 



THE SPIRIT HELPS OUR INFIRMITIES. 



circle (the contact of tlie hands with one another is not 
necessary longer than ten minutes), but still kept the palms 
and fingers, as before, on the table, and in less than fifteen 
minutes the table began to move — and in the direction of 
the piano. It positively lifted one leg, and bent the leaf 
down towards the ground on the other side (we keeping our 
hands in the same position, and following the movement of 
the table). I thought it would fall (but it did not) ; on the 
contrary, it brought the foot round along the carpet, in the 
direction of the piano, then recovered its balance again on 
its three legs, rested a minute or two, bent towards the other 
side, and took another step towards the piano. All this time 
we held our hands in the position already mentioned. In 
this way we moved the table according to our pleasure, 
without any human force, but only the force of will. I 
would have believed no human evidence had I not seen it. 
It is a fact, account for it as you may, and can never be 
gainsaid ; try it, and you may prove the truth of it. Is it 
electricity, or galvanism ? ^Or the power of mind over 
matter ? I know not ; but I know the Httle round table 
moved, and moved as we willed it, and without human force. 
It is no trick. You may easily put it to the test. The 
simple contact of seven hands has moved a table of fifty 
pounds weight. Are we not fearfully and wonderfully made ? 
And when shall the mysteries of our nature be revealed ? 
When we see as we are seen, and know as we are known. 



IX.— THE SPIKIT HELPS OUE INFIEMITIES. 
KoM. viiT. 26 ; 1 John in. 34. 

He that loves prayer is certainly possessed of the Spirit of 
God, and the Son is his Redeemer. Where the Holy Spirit 



THE SPIRIT HELPS OUR INFIRMITIES. 



303 



dwells, there dwells also tlie Father and Son. It is a sure 
mark of the indwelling power of Gfod, when we have our 
greatest joy in conununion with God, and in walking humbly 
with Jesus ; viz., in the joyful spirit of prayer. For prayer 
is not a mere movement of the tongue, nor an utterance of 
the lips alone. True holy prayer is unutterable ; yes, I say 
the unutterable sighing of the soul. So long as we can 
speak much in prayer, there remains much of our own in it ; 
much foreign, perhaps impure fire. But when the Holy 
Spirit kindles the censer of prayer, then the heavenly in- 
cense ascends higher, and the speech fails — we cannot find 
words — and the heart, the spirit, expresses more before God 
without words, than the tongue can utter. But we say not 
that verbal prayer is to be rejected. Everything has its time. 
I only say he that cannot pray except verbally, yields but 
little to the impulse of the Spirit ; he can do so much him- 
self, that he thinks he has but little need for the divine in- 
tercessor in his heart. 

" Thou Holy Spirit breathe, 

Thy quickening power impart, 

Thy heavenly unction give. 

And warm the frozen heart ; 
Now let us feel the sacred fire. 
And every soul with love inspire. 

" Conquer the powers of hell, 
Break down the walls of sin ; 
And every lust dispel 
Polluting us within ; 
Now let us feel thy sacred fire, 
* And every soul with love inspire. 

" Bid darkness flee away. 
Let light and life he given 
O lead us into day. 
The blessed light of heaven, 



304 QUESTIONS FOR THE POPE. 

Now let us feel thy sacred fire, 
And every soul with love inspire." 



" Nunc sancte nobus Spiritus, 
Unum Patri cum Filio, 
Dignare promptus ingeri 
Nostro refusus pectori. 

" Os, lingua, mens, sensus, vigor, 
Confessionem personent, 
Flamescat igne charitas, 
Ascendat ardor proximos. 

" Preesta pater piissime 
Patrique compar Unice, 
Cum Spii'itu Paraclito 
Eegnans per omne sseculum." 

Breathe, O Holy Spirit, tliy divine purifying fires into my 
heart, that I may love holiness and the holy Gfod, and every 
thing and creature only in proportion as it is holy. Fill my 
soul with the overflowings of Divine love, that my spirit, 
heart,^ and inmost sense, may delight unutterably in the 
adorable character of the great and glorious Jehovah, whose 
love to me is boundless and everlasting. May my delights 
be in thee, 0 God, as thine have been with the sons of men. 
Amen. 

Bonn, April UtJi, 1853. 



X.— QUESTIONS FOE THE POPE. 

I am most anxious to be informed, Holy Father (o vlog rrig 
cnrwXdag)^ how many heretics are in the dungeons of the 



QTJESTIONS FOR THE POPE. 



305 



eternal city ? — ^how many are in tlie dungeons of the E,oman 
states in general ? — also, if it be convenient, what are their 
crimes ? — how many for the simple act of reading the Bible ? 
— how many for refusing to worship a piece of bread, or an 
image, or a wax doll, or a winking picture ? How many new 
mediators has your holiness made (1 John ii. 1), sine 8 you 
came to the Papal throne ? It is no doubt very wrong that 
any of your subjects should obey the commands of God, when 
you order them to do the contrary (2 Thess. ii. 4), but yet in 
such cases should you not act with mildness and fatherly 
compassion ? It is no doubt distressing that men should read 
the Bible and approach God through Jesus alone, and pray 
without a priest, and wish to go directly to heaven without a 
thousand years in purgatory, or a thousand pounds to the 
confessor; all such things are very strange, and show a 
wicked depraved disposition to obey God rather than man, 
and you should no doubt, and will, punish them severely. 
Kebuke them sharply ; give it to them well ; why should 
they dare to listen to the voice of God without asking your 
permission? It is highly presumptuous, and not to be 
endured. Is it true that in Italy the morals of the people, 
and especially of the priests, are extremely corrupt and 
sensual ? Is it true, as I have been informed, that your holy 
treasury is augmented by lotteries, and a tax on the houses 
of ill-fame in the city ? Is it true, that during the trans- 
action of their iniquities, you have ordered the images of 
the Virgin to be veiled, or does it arise from the instinct of 
the worshippers themselves ? I asked you before (but have 
not got your answer), in what respects holy, happy, united, 
apostolic Italy, the seat of all wisdom, the centre of Catho- 
licism, the residence of the infallible chair of the fisherman, 
surpasses England, Germany, and America, where that in- 
fallible authority is despised and rejected? Tell me, also, 

X 



306 



SATURDAY NIGHT. 



have tlie J esuits given up their principle, that it is right, and 
good, and Christian, to poison, and by all possible methods 
make away with Protestant princes and kings ? You know 
the Prince of Orange and many others fell by their murderous 
hands ; but perhaps this only agrees with your own principles, 
not to keep faith with heretics ; viz'., with those who read 
the Bible ? I shall wait patiently, hoping for a speedy reply 
to my questions. 



XI.— SATUKDAY NIGHT. 

Many thoughts naturally rise in the mind as the week 
closes. We are seven days nearer the day of God, when we 
shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and the 
serious mind will naturally inquire, how^ the account stands 
between the soul and God? Have we fled for refuge to 
the hope set before us, being clothed in the royal resurrection 
robe of the Redeemer's righteousness, which even the eye 
of God can find no fault with, or are we standing trembling 
and shivering in the rags of our own righteousness ? Or, if 
the matter of our justification be made sure, then how does 
the work of sanctification proceed ? Have we made a week's 
progress ? AYhat wayward thoughts have been steadied, what 
prejudices conquered, what roots of bitterness weeded out of 
the heart and mind during the week ? Has love to God, to 
Jesus Christ the Redeemer, to the brethren, to sinners, to the 
whole world, increased ? Are we really seeking to abound in 
love more and more ? Then, again, have we no accusations 
to bring against ourselves, no sin against our Father's love 
and the brethren, no neglect of duty, no coldness in prayer, 
no want of earnestness in the Lord's work and cause, over 



SATURDAY KIGHT. 



807 



wliich to humble ourselves before the mercy- seat of the holy 
God ? Ai^e we prepared for the exercises of the Lord's day ? 
Much, of the blessing derived from a preached gospel 
depends on the state of mind of the hearers, and much of 
our languor and leanness may arise from want of right pre- 
paration of heart for the hearing of the word. 0, how 
blessed is the day of rest for a weary, toiling, sin- stricken 
world ! It arrests the current of worldly thoughts and em- 
ployments ; it gives time, by God's authority, for training the 
soul and teaching it ; it equalises all classes for the time, like 
all the gospel ordinances, making all alike sharers of the 
same common blessings ; it reminds of creation, redemption, 
and the everlasting rest of the saints, of which it is the 
most fitting type. Welcome, then, most welcome, are the 
beams of thy morning liglit ! These Sabbath bells ! how sweet, 
how solemn they are ! May we be prepared, 0 God, to enter 
thy house of prayer, that we may receive thy full fatherly 
blessing through J esus Christ, oui' only mediator and advocate. 
Amen. 

" Sweet is the solemn voice that calls 
The Christian to the house of prayer ; 
I love to stand within its walls, 
For thou, 0 Lord, art present there. 

" I love to tread the hallowed courts, 
Where two or three for worship meet ; 
For thither Christ himself resorts, 
And makes the little hand complete. 

" 'Tis sweet to raise the common song, 
To join in holy praise and love; 
And imitate the hlessed throng 
That mingle hearts and songs above. 



308 



GOD IS LOVE. 



" Within thy walls may peace abound, 
May all our hearts in one agree; 
Where brethren meet, where Christ is found, 
JVlay peace and concord ever be." 

Bonn, April mh, 1853. 



XIL— GOD IS LOVE. 

The natural sentiments of the heart are dark and suspicious, 
arising, no doubt, from the hidden consciousness that our 
state is not right before God. We have a suspicion that he 
hates us, or at least that we do not deserve to be loved. 
Hence the religions formed by the natural man are founded 
on fear, and their difficult and sanguinary rites form the 
best witness of our fallen state. "Timor facit Deos," says 
Lucretius, and to a great extent the sentiment is true. See 
the Indian swinging in the air with iron in his ribs, thus 
meriting at once the reward of his bloody deities, and the 
applause of the multitude ; or plunging into the Ganges to 
rise no more, or holding his right arm in one position for 
half a century without change ; or keeping his hand shut till 
the nails grow through the palms ; or immolating himself 
under the wheels of Juggernaut ; or, like the Fakirs of 
Turkey and Islam, propitiating his imaginary gods by filth 
and nakedness. All these are the fruits of cur sanguinary 
natural theology. Don't quote against me the processions, 
the songs, the temples, the dancing girls, of the heathen 
temples, the impure worship of Yenus, Bacchus, and Astarte ! 
It is there, I admit it all, and the licentiousness of all 
heathen worship only proves that the gods of our own 
formation partake of our own character, and that the un- 



GOD IS LOVE. 



309 



assisted human mind cannot attain to the idea of a pure 
holy Sovereign of the world. Hence the necessity of Reve- 
lation. The very idea of a holy God — a God perfectly holy, 
just and good, can not originate in the human race, — Hence 
Polytheism is mixed; hence the gods are good and bad, 
merciful and implacable by turns, just like the fallen race of 
man. How can we banish from the heart of the nations, at 
once the terror which makes them tremble, and the licen- 
tiousness which makes their relio^ion a disorrace to human 
nature ? By announcing the glorious sentiment, God is 
love." His power is known, and His purpose must be also 
made known. IN^ature reveals His power, and the Bible re- 
veals His purpose, which is, love to His ruined race. The 
Creator, surrounded with his thunders, makes us tremble ; 
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, surrounded by 
the attractions of mercy and grace, solicits our hearts, and 
conquers their ungenerous suspicions. God is love. Cheer 
up, my brother ! Hope breaks through the clouds of dark- 
ness, and mercy beams down on you from the heavenly throne. 
God is love. His very nature is love ; his ways are full of 
love, and his acts to the children of men are all acts of 
divine love. Behold that bleeding cross ! Say, brother, 
who died there? It was His Son — the brightness of His 
glory, and the express image of His person — it was Immanuel, 
the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. — 
Say, now, is not thy God love ? Was not this great sacrifice 
for thee ? — For thee it was, brother, to banish thy dark 
suspicions, and prove to thee that God is love. Come then, 
let us sing together in the full confidence of faith — 

" Since Thou, the everlasting God, 
Our Father art become ; 
Jesus, our guardian and our friend, 
And heaven our final home ; 



THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY. 



" We welcome all thy sovereign will, 
For all thy will is love ; 
And when we know not what thou dost. 
We wait the light above. 

" Thy gracious love in all our need 
Shall heavenly light impart : 
And be our theme of endless praise. 
When all things else depart." 

Bonn, Ajml 20th, 1853. 



XIII.— MINISTEY, ^taicovia—epyor dtaKovlag, THE WOEK 
OF THE MINISTEY— (Ephesians iv. 12) 

It is remarkably striking how names remain where the 
meaning changes. Minister is not now equivalent to servant : 
on the contrary, the ideas connected with ministers are learn- 
ing, preaching the word occasionally, and fulfilling the duties 
of his profession. He is a gentleman rather than a servant, 
and yet ministr}^, ^laKovia, is simply service. The word is 
used variously in the New Testament. (1.) The service of 
the table. Heb. i. 14 ; Luke x. 40 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 15. The 
waiters are the ministers of the table. (2.) Service for the 
poor ; alms, charity. Acts ix. 29 ; Rom. xv. 31, 26 ; 2 Cor. 
viii. 4 ; ix. 1, 13 ; xi. 8 ; Rev. ii. 19. And the distribution 
of alms. Acts vi. 1 ; xii. 2o ; xi. 30 ; 2 Cor. ix. 12. 
(3.) The service or ministry of the church — of apostles, 
prophets, pastors, and teachers. Acts i. 17, 25 ; vi. 4 ; xx. 24 ; 
xxi. 19 ; Rom. xi. 13 ; 1 Cor. xii. 5 ; 2 Cor. iii. 7, 8, 9 ; 
iv. 1 ; V. 18 ; vi. 3 ; Eph. iv. 12 ; Col. iv. 17 ; 1 Tim. i. 12 ; 
2 Tim. iv. 5, 12. Hence the deacons, ^laKoi^oi, are — 
(1.) Hasty messengers running, ^la Kovlg, through dusty 



THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY. 3X1 

according to the derivation of tlie word. (2.) They are the 
attendants of a king. Matt. xxii. 13 ; and the king himself 
is Otov ^LUKovog. Rom. xiii. 4. (3.) They are ministers 
Tov Otov. 1 Cor. iii. 5 ; 2 Cor. iii. 6 ; vi. 4 ; 1 Thes. iii. 2. 
Because they make known the will of God. (4.) They are 
the ministers tov Xpicrrov. 2 Cor. xi. 22, 23 ; Eph. vi. 21 ; 
Col. i. 7 ; iv. 7. (5.) They are also called ministers of the 
New Testament, because, through their office, is the Head 
of the church dispensing the blessings of the covenant of 
grace. From all this, it is manifest that our office as ministers 
of the gospel is the noblest, the most difficult, as well as the 
most laborious on earth. Woe, woe to the minister who 
forgets that he is a diist^ messenger ! It is also manifest that 
service is not disgraceful but honourable, and so far as the 
word gentleman includes the idea of doing nothing, or having 
nothing to do, it is unscriptural and dishonourable. The king 
is ^laKovoQ 0£ou. Bom. xiii. 4. Service, activity, the ministry 
of love, is the law of the new creation of God. Labourers 
for the harvest, swift messengers for the king's message, 
soldiers who are willing and able, through grace, to bear the 
banner of the cross through hostile squadrons, and plant it 
victoriously on the position of the enemy — these are the 
^ivLKovoi) whom the Lord requires. 

" Go, messengers of Christ, proclaim 
Salvation through Immariuel's name; 
To every land the tidings bear, 
And plant the rose of Sharon there. 

" Speak ! and the world shall hear thy voice ; 
Speak, and the desert shall rejoice. 
Scatter the gloom of heathen night, 
And bid all nations hail the light." 



Bonn, April 2\st, 1853. 



312 



THE WORD OF THE CROSS. 



XIV.~'0 koyoQ Tov aravpov, THE WOED OF THE CEOSS. 
1 Cor. I. 18. Gal. v. 11 ; vi. 12. Phil. hi. 18. 1 Cor. i. 17, &c. 

The sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, however we con- 
template them, must have indescribable worth and merit for 
us sinners. He suffered first of all for the forgiveness of 
our sins as our Redeemer, so that his merit becomes mine 
through faith, and I recognise him as the Lamb that bore 
away my sins, and through his obedience unto the death drew 
down the grace of my God and Father. Then he suffered in 
order to procure for us the Holy Spirit, strength and victory 
in temptation, holiness of life, and the new nature in the 
inner man. His death is the living fountain — the healing 
stream which heals all who drink of it. Thirdly, he died as 
our example, that we might follow his steps ; and those who 
take him only as Redeemer, and not as their example, act as 
unapostolically as those who see in him the example of 
human virtue, but not the Redeemer of the world. He is 
to us all and in all, and we must not divide Him, but take 
Him fully and entirely as he is offered to us in the gospel. 

Du Gottes Lamm, das alle Sunde traget, 
Auf das der Herr die Strafen weislich leget 
Dass er die Schidd an den verlornen Scliafen 
Nicht diirfe strafen ! 

Dir Jesu, leb' ich, dir will ich auch sterben. 
Lass den ja nicht, der dir vertraut, verderben ! 
O, hilf mir jetzt und in den letzten Stunden 
Durch deine Wunden ! 

Bonriy April 2Srd, 1853. 



THE COMING GLORY. 



XV.— THE COMING GLOEY.— John xiv. 3. 

The world with its brightness is fading away ; 
The morning is breaking ; we wait for the day ; 
Eise, rise from your slumbers, away with your feai-s, 
The voice of the Bridegroom resounds in our ears. 

The chains of our bondage are breaking at last; 
The weeping is over, the winter is past ; 
Dark Egypt behind us — the wilderness too, 
And the house of our Father appearing in view. 

Welcome, thrice welcome, ye I'egions of rest ; 
Now, now we shall join in the songs ot tlie blest! 
All toils of the past, save the labours of love, 
We'll forget in the mansions of glory above. 

0, that we could always live in the spirit of readiness to 
meet the Lord ! How little the world would tempt or afflict 
us ! He comes to burn it up and all its works ; the saints 
then alone are safe, and shall remain in the covert of Jeho- 
vah's love, when the kingdoms and empires perish ! Come, 
O thou long expected King ! Thy saints long for thy ap- 
pearing, the world itself is weary of its wickedness, and all 
things sigh to be renewed. 

" Come then, and added to thy many crowns, 
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, 
Thou who alone art worthy ! It was thine 
By ancient covenant, ere Nature's birth ; 
And thou hast made it thine by purchase since, 
And overpaid its value with thy blood. 
Thy saints proclaim thee King; and in their hearts 
Thy title is engraven with a pen 
Dipp'd in the fountain of eternal love. 
Thy saints proclaim thee King ; and thy delay 



« 



314 THE COMING GLORY. 

Gives courage to tbeir foes, who, could they see 
The dawn of thy last Advent, long desh-ed, 
Would creep into the bowels of the hills, 
And flee for refuge to the falling rocks." 

Bonn, AjJril 2Srcl, 1853. 



THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL. 



315 



MAY. 



I. "0 that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion." II. Adoration. 
III. The Protestant Church on the Ehine. IV. A Jewish Prayer for the 
Eoyal Family of England. V. On Liturgies in the Church. VI. Eip{]vri 
vfx~iv. VII. Jewish Objections ; the Unity of God. VIII. German Students ; 
Character; A Song. IX. The Little While. X. Uevrr^i^oar)]. XI. The 
Conversion of the Jews. XII. Augustine's Paradise. XI LI. A Morning on 
the Lebanon. XIV. Cruelty to Animals ; the Lament of the Hare in 1575. 
XV. Jewish Objections ; the Prince of Peace. XVI. A Letter to a Roman 
Catholic ; 1. Lies ; 2. The Bible ; 3. Tyranny. XVII. From Nature up to 
Nature's God. XVIII. The Little Child and the Father. XIX. Jesus at 
the right hand of God. 



" 0 THAT THE SALTATION OF ISEAEL WERE COME OUT 
OF ZION !"— Ps. XIV. 7. 

This race is the most wonderful in the world. A strange 
mysterious halo seems to surround the nation, which gives it 
an interest in the minds of thinking people, and makes them 
cry, " 0 that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion.'' 
The antiquity of the Jews renders them objects of interest. 
They are indeed the only people who can for a long series of 
ages boast of their descent from one common ancestor. From 
Abraham to the present time is about 3853 years : an enor- 
mous period for the national existence ! !N"o other nation can 
pretend to anything like this. They are a mysterious people. 
The nations and rulers of the world have the deep ineradi- 



316 



THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL. 



cable belief, tliat the providence of God is in some remarkable 
way connected with them. Some deem them a curse, others 
a blessing, but none are indifferent. The great Frederick of 
Prussia would not persecute them, for, said he, ''History 
shows that it is dangerous to meddle with them." The 
free-thinking king was right. The nations that oppressed 
them have perished ! Pastor Mallet, of Bremen, observed to 
me, ''Das Heil and das Unkeil is von den Juden" — the 
blessing and the curse are from the Jews. Spain, it is 
observed by historians, commenced to decline from the day 
that she banished them ; nor is this strange, for they were 
the capitalists and merchants of the nation. The Turks 
received them, and Constantinoj^le has at the present time 
80,000 Spanish- speaking Jews. These are called the Sephar- 
dim, or Oriental Jews, as distinguished from the German 
Jews, or Ashkenazim. All the ancient literature of the nation 
belongs to the former, all the modern to the latter. This 
arises from the fact that the Ashkenazim live mostly in 
comitries where Protestantism has been most influential. 
The principles of the Reformation have shed their elevating 
and civilising influence over all classes of the community. 
The Jews indeed have ever been and still are one of the 
most literary nations in the world. The Christians in Pales- 
tine have not a single printing press ; the Jews have two, 
one in Tiberias or Safet, and one in Jerusalem. The influ- 
ence exercised over the press in Germany by the Jews is 
very great. The oppressions of ages have maddened them 
against Christian institutions, and thrown them entirely on 
the side of liberty, which is indeed often another name for 
licentiousness and misrule. On the other hand, we have 
many examples of their power and labours on the side of the 
gospel. The last of the church fathers, Neander, was a J ew, 
and his defence of Christianity in reply to Strauss, is one of 



THE SALTATION OF ISRAEL. 



317 



the best. The nation is now thoroughly and radically divided. 
The Oriental J ews, true to the character of their country and 
clime, remain unchanged. All is still and tranquil in the 
sunny lands of fabled magnificence and splendour. The 
Sephardim are Talmudists, and are sayed the necessity of 
thinking. The German Jews are divided. The ardent, 
political, wealthy Jews, reject the Talmud and all its 
restrictions. They eat pork without a scruple ! These are 
the new Jews ; their faith is Deism ; their jMessiah, political 
liberty ; their promised land is not Palestine, but the land 
which gives them equal rights. As to converted Jews, their 
numbers are very small, while the baptised Jews are very 
many, and it must in truth be added, that many of these con- 
verts are little credit to Christianity. There are indeed manj^ 
bright exceptions who adorn the doctrine of God, their 
Saviour, and verify the Divine intimations of Eom. xi. As 
to missionary labour among them, 1st. There has been 
success enough to justify the Church in continued efibrts 
for their conversion ; she is still to continue her unwearied 
efforts for the enlightenment and salvation of all the nations 
of the earth. 2nd. As to the modes of operation ; these must 
vary in different countries ; generally they dislike visits ; 
they deem it disgraceful to be or to receive a missionary. 
Every man should remain in his own religion, and serve 
God according to his own comdctions. They receive tracts 
generally, and books when they get them for nothing, and I 
believe many of them read them. They do not come to hear, 
nor can this be expected till their prejudices be greatly 
shaken. A Jew lately. Dr. Stein, gave a course of lectures 
in my chapel on the literature of Germany. He often spoke 
of Christianity as the great ci^-iliser of modern times, and 
Christ as the light of the world ! He is a rational J ew, and 
rejects the dogmas of their traditions. Has God not some 



318 



THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL. 



great work in store for the Jewish nation ? Undoubtedly — 
1st. They are to be converted and restored to their o^Tn. land, 
according to the prophecies and promises of the Word of Grod. 
2nd. The two parts of the nation, Judah and Israel, are to be 
united, and form one great ruling free nation in Palestine. 
3rd. They are to be in some way or other the means of 
blessing to all the nations of the earth ; they are kept sepa- 
rate ; they know all tongues, countries, customs, and climates, 
and are thus fitted for some universal display of the Divine 
Glory. 0 that the Salvation of Israel were come out of 
Zion! 

Pity, Lord, thy chosen race, 
Far from thee and far from grace, 
Every sorrow, every grief, 
Hai'dens them in unbelief 

See their laud, where Jesus died ! 
See their wanderings far and wide ! 
See, 0 Lord, and pity them, 
Bless thine own Jerusalem. 

Thou hast chosen them of old, 
And thy love can ne'er grow cold ! 
Love eternal holds them fast, 
Till it conquers them at last ! 

Hopeless, homeless wanderers still, 
Far from thee and Zion's hill ! 
And, 0, the cui'se still cleaves to them, 
The curse that smote Jerusalem. 

Jesus ! Saviour full of grace ! 
Virgin-born from Israel's race, 
Let thy tender pitying eye 
Melt their hearts to sympathy. 

By that love which brought thee here ! 
Love incai'uate ever near ! 



ADORATION. 



319 



By that love which took thee home 
To thy heavenly Father's throne ; 
Bless the trihes of Israel's stem, 
Pity, Lord, Jerusalem ! 

By thy holy life below, 

By thy agony of woe, 

By thy fainting dying breath. 

Breathing pardon even in death ! 

Bless tlie tribes of Israel's stem. 

Pity, Lord, Jerusalem ! 

By thy sweat and agony, 
In the dark Gethsemane, 
Bending rocks and darkened sky. 
Parted veil and dying cry ; 
By the heaving earthquake shock; 
By the sealed sepulchral rock ; 
By the valley dark and dread ; 
By thy rising from the dead ; 
Son of God and Son of man ! 
Shepherd-king and dying Lamb ! 
From thy boundless realm of light; 
From thy throne of glory bright; 
See the tribes of Israel's stem; 
Bless thine own Jerusalem ! 

Bonn, May 1st, 1853. 



II.— ADOEATION. 

0 Tliou tliat dwellest in tlie heayens ! to tliee I lift up my 
eyes, my hands, and my heart, in the silence and sacredness of 
adoring love. Thou fiUest all, pervadest all, rulest and guidest 
the created world, 0 thou most holy, wise, unapproachable 
God ! Unseen, but all- seeing ; unknown, yet all knowing ; 
unfelt, yet all-pervading God. How I tremble at my nothing- 
ness, my weakness, sirifulness, and guilt when I look up to 



320 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH ON THE RHINE. 

thee ! I hear not thy voice, I see not thy form, I am not 
conscious of the all-pervading power ; most distant, yet ever 
near ; needing nothing, yet requiring all ; 0 how shall I 
name thee, how shall I approach thy throne, how shall I get 
into the hiding of thy power ? 0 the visible universe, the 
external shrine and shadow of thy glory, I long to get through 
the veil and enter the sanctuary of the living God ! My God ! 
how the soul longs to know thee, to feel thee, to have com- 
munication with thee ! I see thee, hear thee, in the visible 
universe. I think I see and hear thee, but I long for the 
reality when thinking, hoping, and believing shall yield to the 
vision of thy glory ! I am so near thee, and yet cannot be 
sure of thy presence ! I am in thee, and cannot feel thee ! 
0 my God, my God ! accept the trembling weakness of a poor 
miserable sinner who cannot think of thee ! My heart 
trembles before thee, my eye fails, and thy power makes me 
afraid. My faith is like the grain of mustard-seed, and 
cannot sustain me. I am nothing before thee. Thou arbiter 
and judge, thou king and ruler of the universe, thou living 
fount of eternal power, glory, and blessedness, I take refuge 
under the covert of mediation. Lord J esus, I come to thee ! 

Bonn, May 2nd, 1853. 



III.— THE PROTESTANT CHUECH ON THE RHINE. 

The strong principles of Lutheranism never took deep root 
in this region ; the Reformation here went far over the bounds 
which Luther wished to set to it. Here, they were Reformed 
and Calvinistic, and the churches of the present day bear the 
same character. In doctrine they are Calvinistic, in govern- 
ment Presbyterial ; though in both they are far from the 



THE PROTESTANT CHURCH ON THE RHINE. 321 

clearness and unity of tlie Cliurch of Scotland. I witnessed 
lately the choice of a pastor in Bonn. The election rests with 
the people, but the mass of the people do not vote directly, 
they choose at stated intervals of a year, or two years, or three 
years, representatives from among themselves, to whom all 
church matters are committed. These, with the pastor, or 
pastors, form the Presbytery, and have the entire manage- 
ment of all that concerns the well-being of the church. In 
Bonn, the little church, of about 1,000 souls, has from thirty 
to forty representatives. When a pastor is to be chosen these 
meet together and consider the subject. The neighbouring 
pastor whom they wished to bring to Bonn was proposed, 
then a deputation was sent to drop into his church unex- 
pectedly to hear his preaching, and gather information about 
his life and conversation. These are well satisfied with his 
preaching, and report to their brethren of the Presbytery; 
then the next step is to write their wish to the president or 
superintendent of the Consistory, who appoints a day, at least 
fourteen days distant, for the election ; on the appointed day 
he comes with his assessor, preaches, and holds the election, 
and declares the pastor or candidate who has the majority of 
votes to be the person appointed for the olRce of the ministry 
in that place. The pastor elected may take four weeks to 
consider the matter, and then refuse or accept as he pleases. 
The whole proceeding was very solemn, and the voters, when 
called upon, came forward to the pulpit and gave their votes. 
The Synod meets every three years. Thus the Presbytery, 
the Consistory, and the Synod, are the proper church courts 
of this Protestant Church. I^ote, the doctrines in this church 
are not uniform ; many of the pastors differ from the Heidel- 
berg Confession, or Catechism, and the discipline is much 
laxer than with the Presbyterians in Great Britain. Note 
further, that the pastors speak against sects, and repudiate all 

Y 



322 PRAYER OF THE JEWS FOR THE ROYAL FAMILY. 

departure from tlie State Churcli, however sound may be the 
doctrines of the separatists ; while in the church you find all 
possible varieties of belief, from the mythology of David 
Strauss, to the most ardent high Calvinism ! Rothe, one 
of the professors of diAdnity in Bonn, is sought after from 
distant lands on account of his celebrity. He utterly rejects 
the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and once in my hearing 
declared that Paul Imew nothmg of the pre-existence of 
Christ." Another divinity professor, Dorner, equally cele- 
brated, is orthodox, and his work on the person of Christ is 
known throughout Europe. They get on apparently very 
well together ! — all in the same church, all at the same table 
of the Lord ! The differences of almost all the sects in Eng- 
land are nothing to this. 

Mmj 3, 1853. 



IV.— THE PEAYEE OF THE JEWS FOE THE EOYAL 
FAMILY OF ENGLAND. 

" May. He that dispenseth salvation unto kings and dominion 
unto princes ; whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom ; 
who delivered his servant David from the destructive sword ; 
who maketh a way in the sea, and a path through the mighty 
waters ; bless, preserve, guard, assist, exalt, and highly aggran- 
dise our most Gracious Sovereign, Lady Queen Yictoria ; 
Adelaide, the Queen Dowager ; the Prince Albert ; Albert 
Prince of Wales, and all the royal family. May the supreme 
King of kings, through his infinite mercj^, grant them life, 
preserve and dehver them from all manner of trouble, sorrow, 
and danger ; subdue the nations under her feet, cause her 
enemies to fall before her, and grant her to reign prosperously. 
May the supreme King of kings, through his infinite mercy. 



LITURGIES. 



323 



inspire in Iter heart, and in the heart of all her counsellors 
and nobles, to have compassion and benevolence towards ns, 
and towards all Israel. In their days, and in ours, may 
Judah be saved and Israel dwell in safety, and the Redeemer 
come nnto Zion ; which God, in his infinite mercy grant, 
and say. Amen." 

Thus the Jews pray (Ewald) in the city of Jerusalem ! 
This is a remarkable fact, and shows that England is the 
protector of the Jews throughout the world. And we may 
hope that the Lord will bless us for our kindness to his an- 
cient people. Blessed is he that blesseth thee ! 

May 4, 1853. 



V.-^LITURGIES ; ARE THEY DESIRABLE OR NOT IN THE 
CHURCH OF CHRIST? 

This question should not be discussed as a party question. 
There may be Episcopalians who reject liturgies, and there 
are certainly millit)ns of Presbyterians who retain and de- 
fend the use of them. The advantages seem to be the fol- 
lowing.: — That there should be a steadfast, regular, and 
known form of prayer delivers the church from hasty, rash, 
and, it may be, intemperate effusions of enthusiasm or fana- 
ticism. It accustoms a nation, or church, to a form of sound 
words, which by long usage becomes so entwined with the 
feelings and habits as to form a certain kind of guarantee 
against change and apostacy. It relieves the pastor from 
the great responsibility of a sacred part of his office, and 
the church seems to forget the man in the office ; for young 
ministers, and among wealthy, proud, aristocratic hearers, 
this is of some importance. Liturgies grew lip in the course 
of the Christian church, as a development of her life, as well 

y2 



324 LITURGIES ; 

as a testimony for. and defence of, lier doctrines ; and thus, 
by using tlie scriptm^al parts of those in existence, we be- 
come, in tlie public acts of oiu^ faitli and religion, incorpo- 
rated with the imiversal Church, and thus imbibe the s^^iidt 
and sentijnents of heroic and martyred ancestors. TTe repeat 
the prayers used for fifty generations in the one Church of 
the Liidng C-i-od. These seem to be the advantages of litur- 
gies. The disadvantages are the following : — They have no 
authority in the Holy Scripture ; they consecrate and per- 
petuate error as well and as readily as the truth ; they go 
on the principle that tradifion hath authority to expound 
and complete the written word : they are lihely to engender 
a legal, formal, pharisaical spirit ; and lastly, the spiiit of 
imity, which the Bible is so well calculated to produce, is 
likely. throu,2"h litiu^gical services, to degenerate into the 
imholy, sectarian docrma of Un^formify. As to the amoimt 
of servuce ''if liturgies be allowed at all) which should be 
liturgical, that must depend on circumstances. The liturgies 
in the Presb^-terian churches of GJ-ermany are very short, 
not occup^dng', certainly, more than half an hour, and they 
are used only at the principal services of the church, or what 
in England we would call the morning service. The Xicene 
and Athanasian creeds are left out, while the Apostles' is 
retained. The same Scriptiu^es are read on Simdays, and 
the four great festivals which they have retained^, as in 
the Popish churches. The Presbyterian liturgy may be too 
short for a liturgy, and it is a fact that the majority, per- 
haps, of the established church of Prussia are in favour of 
a more comprehensive litui^gical service. How often, on the 
other hand, have I heard devoted and earnest English cler- 
gymen lamenting the length of their national liturgy, and 
especially the necessity of readin^r it on all occasions. Ne- 
vertheless, if the intention be to make the people indepen- 



ARE THEY DESIRABLE OR NOT? 



325 



dent of the pastor, and render tlie pnlpit ministration less 
necessary, it should be long and full. In tlie East liturgies 
have nearly banished preaching from the church. Popery 
delights in liturgical services, because they are formal ; they 
are in a dead language, they accustom the people to church 
authority ; they do away with the necessity of preaching, 
which the Papacy rarely encourages ; they give opportunity 
and occasion for splendid exhibitions, processions, and at- 
tractive worldly pomp. They are also very consistent with 
the Pomish doctrines of inherent justification, and opus 
operatum. In England the attempt was to harmonise anti- 
quity with progress — the pomp and solemnity of Kturgies 
with the intelligence of the peo]3le, and the freedom and 
vehemence of popular discourse. The clergyman is far from 
being independent, and yet he has a certain circle in which 
the individuality and spirit of the man has free scope. The 
liturgies of the Reformed Calvinistic national churches of 
France and Geneva are short, and, like the Church of Scot- 
land (which uses no liturgy at all), leaves the service mainly 
in the hand of the officiating pastor. Every church and 
nation, both in reformed and unreformed lands, have their 
own special liturgies. Thus the liturgy used in Scotland 
differs from the English, and the English from that of the 
Episcopal church in America (in America they don't receive 
the Athanasian creed), and in the non-episcopal churches of 
Grermany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and ISTorway, France, 
and Geneva, the liturgies are all different from one another 
in many respects. This is also true in Poman Catholic coun- 
tries. Indeed, I believe the only missal used generally in the 
Popish church is the Poman. 

Aurovpyia, among the Greeks, denoted any public work 
(Demos, contra Leptinem, 143) ; in the Septuagint it is used 
for HDK^D (1 Chron. xxvi. 30) ; for service (Ex. 



326 JEWISH OBJECTIONS ; 

XXXVlll. 21 ; Kumb. iv. 25) ; for H^JLTB, work (Ezek. XXXIX. 
20) ; for J^li^, war (Numb. viii. 24) ; for Hlin, law (2 Chron. 
xxxi. 4. Thus all the offices of church and state — all con- 
ceivable public acts and offices, are X^irovpyia. In the I^ew 
Testament it is ministration (in the Jewish priestly office, 
comp. ]niD, 1 Chron. xi. 13), Luke i. 23. Service (viz., 
service of love and benevolence for the poor), 2 Cor. ix. 12. 
The XsiTovpyia Tiig 7rl(7re(og (Phil. ii. 17), is the service to 
the saints which faith requires. Comp. Phil, ii, 30, and 
Acts xiii. 2; Eom. xv. 27; Heb. x. 11. It is remarkable 
that the word liturgy/ does not occur in the English transla- 
tion of the Bible. 

May bth, 1853. 



VI.— JEWISH OBJECTIONS ; THE UNITY OF GOD. 

The following may be taken as a fair specimen of Jewish 
reasoning among the more intelligent of the free-thinking 
Jews on the Phine. 

Jew. — We take our stand on the words of the Jewish 
law-giver, inK HIH^ I^H^h^ HIH'' bi^l^^ Hear, 0 Israel, 

the Lord our God is one Lord or perhaps better translated, 
" Hear, 0 Israel, Jehovah is our God, Jehovah alone." This 
great truth Christianity denies or perverts ; for it must be 
admitted that, in some sense at least, the doctrine of the 
Trinity contradicts the strict unity of God. 

Christian. — I deny that the l^^ew Testament teaches the 
doctrine of a Trinity in any sense inconsistent with the unity 
of God in the law of Moses ; and on this subject I submit 
the following considerations: — (1.) The unity of the Deity 
does not seem to be absolute even in the law. In the passage 
which you quote (Deut. vi. 4) DTI^^^ is plural ; " Hear, 0 



THE UNITY OF GOD. 327 

Israel, Jehovah is our Elohim, Jeliovah alone and pllirai 
forms of verbs and nouns are associated with God in many 
passages (Gren. i. 26 ; iii. 2 ; xi. 7 ; xx. 13 ; xxxi. 5-3 ; 
XXXV. 7 ; Deut. iv. 7 ; v. 23 ; Jos. xxiv. 19 ; 1 Sam. iv. 8 ; 
2 Sam. vii. 23). Now, I ask, if the Di\dne unity be incon- 
sistent with any kind of plurality, why is the plural used ? 

Jew. — Kings, princes, and great people speak in the plural 
number; the form is a mere usage, and you can argue 
nothing from it. 

Christian. — Prove that it is a usage in the East ; I deny 
that it is. I maintain that the usage in the East is in the 
singular number. It is not — We, the king, do make a 
decree but " I, the king, do make a decree " (see Ezra 
vii. 12, 13, 21 ; Dan. ii. 3, 5, 8, 9 ; iii. 15, 17, 25 ; see 
especially Dan. iii. 29 ; vi. 26). I do therefore utterly and 
absolutely deny that kings in the East ever spake in the 
plural ; and I den}^ that they do so now. I maintain that 
the We," which you talk of, is both a Western and a 
modern custom. It arose from a division of power, from 
councils, senates, and parliaments ; but in the East, where 
single monarchy was the form of government, it was, and is 
the custom for the king to say, " I, the king, do make a 
decree." Your objection is, therefore, unfounded, and I 
must again ask, why the Divine being speaks to us in the 
plural number ? — " Let m make man in our imag3, accord- 
ing to our likeness" (Gen. i. 26). Besides (2.), you are 
aware that the ancient Jews, at least some of the learned 
among them, asserted there were three degrees or principles, 
or persons, in God, viz., God, his Word, and his Spirit, of 
which you may read a great deal more in the works of Philo 
and the Jewish rabbis. 

Jew. — The doctrine of the Trinity is contradictory and 
unreasonable. I cannot believe that three are one. 



328 



THE PEACE OF GOD. 



Christian. — The doctrine of the Trinity is no contra- 
diction; the nature may be one, and the persons in it 
many. In the unity of the human nature there are many 
persons, and so in the unity of the Divine infinite nature 
there may be three Divine persons. Where is the contra- 
diction here ? In your own unity there are three principles 
united — ^body, soul, and spirit. And if it be true, it cannot 
be unreasonable. God is the Lord and giver of reason. We 
may not be able to comprehend it ; but neither that, nor any 
other truth, is incomprehensible. 

Jew. — ^You have more to say than I thought. I will take 
time to consider your statements. I shall call in the course 
of the week. Farewell. 

May Wi, 1853. 



YIL— THE PEACE OF GOD. Phil. iv. 7; John xiv. 27; 
EoM. V. 1 ; Col. hi. 15 

The peace of God must be a peace ivorthy of God; all 
his works and ways manifest the fulness, worth, and majesty 
of his character. See his creation ! How vast, regular, and 
glorious is this fair world, which, indeed, seems to be created 
equally for the use of man and the glory of God. It is 
worthy of his Divine wisdom and power. So the Gospel of 
God is worthy of him. The occasion was a great one — the 
ruin of a whole order of his creatures ; the means were 
worthy of him, viz., the incarnation, life, death, and resur- 
rection of his Son ; the end was worthy of him — the eternal 
welfare of his creatures. So he is the God of peace ; Jesus 
is the Prince of peace ; his gospel the gos23el of peace ; his 
death the cause of peace ; and his resurrection the proof and 



THE PEACE OF GOD. 



329 



seal of peace. This npi^vr) rov Qeov is a peace frojn God, — 
a peace which he gives ; a peace which brings the sinner 
into fellowship with himself ; the enmity ceases, and the sun- 
shine of love is re-established between God and the sinner. 
This peace is not the result of our making a treaty or agree- 
ment with God ; it is not a cessation of hostilities, and a 
laying down of our weapons, but a removal of the enmity 
itself. We do not tvish to learn war any more. His love 
has filled us, and we think, feel, and love to act as he does. 
He has loved, redeemed, and forgiven us, and the conviction 
and firm assurance of this fact results in peace. Perfect 
peace is impossible while we have any doubts on the subject 
of personal salvation. Perhaps the word, peace of God, de- 
notes the peace which he has — the peace and serenity in 
which he dwells ; so that by faith we see sin with his eyes, 
and feel over sinners with his heart. We dwell in him, and 
share the calmness and peace that dwell there. 

EtjO//v77 vfuy, little flock, 
Thy safety is the Living Eock ; 
Thy hiding-place the mercy-seat, 
With Mary at the Savioiu-'s feet. 

Elprjvrj vjxiv, peace I give, 

To all who will believe and live ; 

My peaceful banner is unfurl'd. 

And peace proclaimed for all the world. 

^Iprjvr) vfup in the hour, 

When death and sin assert their power; 

Peace in thy dying agony, 

And peace to all eternity. 



330 



GERMAN STUDENTS. 



VIII.'-GERMA'N STUDENTS ; CHAEACTER ; SONGS. 

Learning is undoubtedly more estimated and also more 
diffused in Germany tlian 'in England. This arises from the 
German character, which is more patient and studious than 
ours ; from their national schools and gymnasiums, which 
are of the highest order, and very cheap ; and lastly, from 
the great encouragement Avhich the rival princes and govern- 
ments give to learning and learned men. As to the kind of 
learning, and the purpose to which it is applied, the Germans 
are much more indifferent than we are. If the book be 
learned, the author will be rewarded, no matter what the 
opinions be which he advocates. As to the students, we 
observe, that on the whole they are as moral, and much less 
mischievous, than the students in England and Ireland, Of 
the thousand that attend the university here annually, about 
twenty, I am told, pass the session without hearing any lec- 
tures or examinations at all ; among the others there are 
many who study very diligently. They are divided into 
clubs, which are distinguished by their caps. In many of 
these clubs fighting (duelling) is one of the fundamental 
principles, and often one club challenges another, and they 
drive out to the wood and fight it out. It is not, however, 
like the Irishmen's duel, with the pistols in each other's 
mouths — they use only swords ; they are forbidden to thrust ; 
the neck and left arm are bandaged, so that there is little dan- 
ger, except from cuts in the face. The German students sing a 
great deal. Song has a prodigious influence on the German 
mind in general ; and the students, in their meetings, in their 
evening walks, and on board the steamers of the Rhine, contri- 
bute very much to the vivacity and amusement of society by 
their songs. These songs are mostly in German, but sometimes 
they are in Latin. The following is a curious specimen : — 



SONG OF GERMAN STUDENTS. 



Gaudeamus igitur 
Juveues dura sninus ! 
Post jucundam juYentutem 
Post molestam senectutem 
Nos habebit humus. 

Ubi sunt, qui ante nos 
In mundo fuere ? 
Vadite ad superos, 
Transite ad inferos 
Ubi jam fuere. 

Vita nostra brevis est, 
Brevi finietur ; 
Venit mors velociter, 
Eapit nos atrociter, 
Nemini parcetui-; 

Vivat academia, 
Vivant professores, 
Vivat membrum quodlibet, 
Vivant membra quaslibet 
Semper sint in flore ! 

Vivant omnes virgines 
Faciles, formosae, 
Vivant et miilieres 
Tenerae, amabiles, 
Bonee, laboriosae ! 

Vivat et respublica 
Et qui illam regit ! 
Vivat nostra civitas 
Maecenatum caritas. 
Quae nos bic protegit! 

Pereat tristitia, 
Pereant osores, 
Pereat diabolus, 
Qui vis antiburschius, 
Atque irrisores ! 



332 



THE LITTLE WHILE. 



IX.— THE LITTLE WHILE. Heb. x. 37; Luke xyiii. 8; 
John xiy. 19. 

The ways of tlie great Jeliovali are not to be measui'ed by 
our modes of action or thinking. His worlds in the starry 
heavens nioye in spaces, masses, and with yelocities which 
baffle and overwhelm our conceptions. His kingdom rules 
over all ; and the extent of its boimdaries, the niunber and 
varieties of its subjects, the nature and extent of its laws, 
the connection of the provinces with one another, and with 
the capital, where the throne of God is ; the mj^stery of 
decay and reproduction, and how far it extends : all these, 
and, indeed, everything else which concerns him and his 
glorious self-manifestation, transcend infinitely all our powers 
of thought or expression. So is it with grace. His love is as 
transcendent as his power ; the fountain of mercy as open 
and free as the law of life in the material creation. Yet 
Jesus rarely passes from the human into the infinite ; being 
one of us, and with us, and seeking to be understood by us, 
his words are words of himian sjTnpathy and limitation. Yet 
now and then the in-dwelling fulness breaks forth, and leads 
us away into the boundless and infinite. It is, however, only 
a glance, and Ave are soon recalled again to the human con- 
ditions which encompassed the incarnate Son. His little 
while is a long series of ages ; one day is, with him, as a 
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. He talks 
with Nicodemus on earth, and is at the same time in heaven 
(John iii. 13) ; in space as in time, he is here and there 
presented in his relations to the infinite. His words, his 
ways, his actions, his teaching, his entire intercourse with 
men, are truly human, yet they seem ever something more. 
His sympathies are tenderer than ours ; he works with a 
clear aim ; he makes no experiments ; his attempts never 



THE FEAST OF PENTECOST. 



333 



fail. His little while is ages ; Ms few liours on tlie cross of 
dying love influenced two eternities. And this idea of time 
may console tlie Church in her pilgrimage ; for if this little 
while of grace lasts so long, what must be the hopes and 
prospects of the ages of glory? This little while is the 
world's respite ; — the hour of repentance and grace before 
the fires of vengeance break forth to consume the ungodly. 
What a motive for us ! Be diligent ; sinners are perishing. 
The time is short, and the judge standeth at the door. 

Lo ! the strife is not decided ; 
See, thy seamless robe divided ; 
Dreadful notes are heard afar, 
Nations sound the trump of war, 

Come ! Come ! Come ! 

Tyrants bind thy saints in chains ! 
Antichrist still lives and reigns; 
Sin abounds; our love is cold, 
And Satan rages round the fold. 

Lord Jesus, come ! 

Hear thy weeping, widowed bride ; 
Hear the groans on every side ; 
Nature, man, and angels, all 
Join the universal call. 

Come! Come! Come! 

May lOth, 1858. 



X.— Jll^ntir .in— £0^777 ^j3^o^a^MV, DEUT. XYI. 10, THE 
SAME AS TrsvTYiKoar^, THE FEAST OF PENTECOST. 

It was one of the three great feasts of the Jews, 
which were the standing types and memorials of God's 
everlasting truth — the Passover, the Pentecost, and the 



334 



THE FEAST OF PENTECOST. 



Feast of Tabernacles, symbolising nature, grace, and glory ; 
or considered locally, Egypt, the wilderness, and Canaan; 
yiz.. Earth, our pilgrimage, and heaven; or, seen and 
sealed in the person of Christ (as all truth is and must 
be), you have the Crucifixion, the Ascension, and the 
Second Advent ; and these are the fundamental truths of 
both, yea of all dispensations ; viz., what we were, what we 
are, and what we shall be. We were in nature (Egypt), we 
are in the mlderness, with our backs to the iron furnaces, 
and we shall enter into glory ; the Passover (the cross), broke 
Pharaoh's power over us ; the Pentecost (heavenly gifts, 
manna in the wilderness), is our provision by the way ; the 
Tabernacles (Advent), brings us into the long promised rest 
of the kingdom. — This day, then, reminds us of the ascension 
of Christ, and the coming of the Ploly Ghost. He has, then, 
really broken the dominion of death, and carried with him 
into the heavenly sanctuary our immortalised and emancipated 
nature ; and not only is he as head and forerunner entered 
within the veil, but he has dispensed from his glorious 
throne the inestimable gifts of the Holy Ghost. The 
Pentecostal effusion has never ceased ; the current, less deep 
than formerly, flows over a larger surface, and the gifts of 
the Comforter are dispensed with Divine wisdom, according 
to the wants of the church and the world. He that ascend-ed 
still intercedes, and the graces of his Spirit are inscribed 
on the character of all his saints. He is given in answer to 
our prayers as he was on the day of pentecost, and in pro- 
portion as we live and walk humbly with our God, may we 
expect the Divine breathings of the Comforter, Ask and ye 
shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be 
opened unto you. His presence brings you joy; he leads 
vou to the Lamb, and makes you rest sweetly on the bosom 
of Divine love ; he is the dove of peace wit^ the olive branch. 



THE FEAST OF PENTECOST. 336 

to say tliat tlie waters are subsided ; lie is tlie rusliing mighty 
wind, to bear tlie bark of salvation to tlie ends of the earth ; 
he is the rain and dew of heaven, the river of God, and the 
streams of rejoicing, to fertilize the heritage when it is 
weary ; he is the fire of divine love to inflame the heart and 
burn up the wood, hay, and stubble within you ; he is the 
breath of new and eternal life, breathed into the redeemed 
church by the Second Adam, the Lord from heaven. 0, 
cherish his presence ! " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, 
whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption." 
" Quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesyings." 



Holy Spirit, heavenly fire, 
Kindle every pure desire ; 
Give the oil and fan the flame 
Of burning love to Jesu's name. 

Fill, 0 fill, the vacant heai't; 
Liie and love and joy impart; 
Let our inward tumults cease, 
O thou gentle dove of peace. 

Thou canst make our journey bright; 
Turn our darkness into light; 
Attune the ear, direct the eye, 
And waft to heaven the sinner's sigh. 

" Almum flamen, vita mundi 
Cujus virtus vegetat 
Quidquid aequoris profundi, 
Soli quidquid et rotundi 
Spatium progerminat. 
Motor omnis creaturae. 
Vita vitae sub tellure 
Motus atque requies 
Spiritus tu unus es. 



336 



THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS. 



" A^eni spiritus creator, 
Dono largus septulo, 
Veni terrffi reuorator 
Pacis atque boni sator 
Locuples Solatio ! 
0 tu mentibus beatis 
Gaudivim, sed pravitatis 
Inventori baratbro 
Maxima confusio." 



XI.— THE CONVEESION OF THE JEWS. 

I am firmly persuaded tliat the Lord is working in this 
dispensation of grace according to the principle of election. 
This extends to both Jews and Grentiles. The efiects of the 
gospel seem to be simply the taking ont a people to his 
name — the nniting and gathering together the E/c/cXr^o-ia, 
or elect chmxh of Grod. It is to be nniversaUy pro- 
claimed, but . it is not uniyersally received, nor does 
either the promise of God or the experience of the past 
warrant us in believing that it shall be so, while the present 
dispensation lasts. Many are called, but few are chosen. 
The mii'aculous effiision of Pentecost led multitudes to 
mock and add blasphemy to their former hardness of heart. 
The entire working of grace is partial ; no man is fully 
sanctified ; no nation has yet become Christian, in the true 
sense of the word ; no city, coimtrj', or isle of the sea, has 
ever yet become thoroughly Christian. Providence and the 
promise, unite in verifying this fact. All, therefore, that we 
can e:c2oect from the preaching of the gospel among Jews or 
Gentiles, is the fulfilment of the Di^-ine promise — viz., the 
taking out of the world a people for his name. And this 
state of things shall certainly remain to the end, as the state 



THE CO^'\^RSIOX OF THE JEWS. 



337 



the gospel abundantly testify. Nor are the Jews an ex- 
ception to this law of election ; tliey confirm it greatly, for 
while they are nationally rejected, and all their former 
privileges aboKshed, as the public depositaries of the Divine 
oracles, and the witnesses for the Divine unity and character, 
they come for their share in this dispensation of election. 

Hence they are not entirely blinded, nor are all the branches 
broken ofi". (Rom. xi. 17, 24, 25.) There is an election among 
the Jews, and many of the brightest ornaments of the Chris- 
tian name are converts from that nation. I have been led 
into this train of thought, by the visit of a Jew yesterday. 
I had seen him in Hamburg as an inquirer, and given him 
letters to friends in England. He was baptised there, and 
brings excellent certificates from Dr. Henderson and others. 
He seems a very excellent young man, and may yet be very 
useful in the church. He called to thank me for my former 
kindness, and get tracts and books to distribute among his 
brethren. I gave him these and recommended him to the 
grace of Grod. He is now residing in Dusseldorf. 

But, you say, is the world to remain for ever unenlightened ? 
Answer : It will certainly remain so, and become worse and 
worse probably, till the Lord comes ; for the Man of sin and 
Son of perdition will reign till the Son of Man comes to 
destroy him (2 Thes. ii.), and great Babylon shaU sink all at 
once, and not gradually, into the sea (Rev. xviii.), and the 
image shall remain till the kingdom of the Stone breaks it to 
pieces in a moment (Dan. ii.), and the rule of the beasts 
shall continue imtil the Son of Man comes with the clouds 
of heaven to set up the kingdom of the Most High imder 
the whole heaven (Dan. vii.), and Antichrist and his scarlet 
paramour will occupy the earth, until the bride and the 
heavenly bridegroom displace them (Rev. xvii. and xiv.) ; 
and the wheat and the tares, the sheep and the goats, wiU 

z 



338 



Augustine's paradise. 



of tlie world at the coming of Christ, and all the parables of 
remain together imto the judgment of the quick, when the 
Son of Man shall separate them (Matt, xxv.) — Then the Jews 
will return nationally to God and also to their own land, and 
the renewed earth shaU become the theatre of universal 
felicity ; then the sublime prophecies of the Old Testament 
will be fulfilled to the letter, and the whole earth be filled 
with the knowledge of the Lord ; then the clang of arms and 
the shock of battle will be heard no more, but all nature 
and all nations shall be at rest under the King and the 
kingdom of righteousness and peace. Then the wonders of 
redeeming love will be seen in the teeming population of the 
earth, which, wandering star as it was, shall return to its 
orbit of holiness ; and all its families and tribes and nations, 
the savage as well as the civilised, shall enjoy with thankful- 
ness the goodness of the Lord, and one endless, boundless 
hallelujah of praise and adoration shall ascend from them all, 
to Him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever 
and ever ! Oh, does not the heart leap, and the eye sparkle at 
the hope of such glories ? Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly ! 

Bonn, May IQth, 1853. 



XII.— AUGUSTINE'S PAKADISE. 

The delineations of the future glory of the church must 
partake of the infirmity of earthly feelings and himian 
language. Hence, even in the sacred Scriptures, we read 
of a holy city, with streets of gold, and walls of pearls. 
The inhabitants are clothed in white robes ; palms of victory 
are in their hands ; crowns, diadems, golden harps, everlast- 
ing spring, unclouded skies, everlasting rest, are the common 
imagery of the heavenly state. And so it must be. Pure 



Augustine's paradise. 



339 



spirits may enjoy purely spiritual truth, embodied spirits 
like us must have embodied truth. 

You should notj therefore, find fault with the noble canticle 
of Augustine (one of the noblest of antiquity), because his 
glowing descriptions are embodied in a brilliant framework 
of materialism. And, indeed, think of heaven as you may, 
it must necessarily include the ideas of locality and material- 
ism (see Chalmers on the 'New Heavens), for the glorified 
body of our Hedeemer must be conceived of as a human 
form, occupying a certain portion of space somewhere. 
Dixon's admirable spiritual song, "Jerusalem, our happy 
home," is full of the same noble and striking imagery, 
though, as a composition, it must yield, I think, the palm to 
Augustine's " Paradise." 

I like to turn back to Augustine. The clouds of ignorance 
and barbaric superstition had not settled around the church. 
The apostacy had not submerged the simple sublime faith of 
the apostolic ages. Augustine's whole life and doctrine were 
one continual protest against the fatal errors of self- righteous- 
ness and human merit. We trace the muddy stream through 
the swamps of the Papacy, until we reach the pure fountains 
of primitive faith. Let us, therefore, refresh our hearts 
with Augustine's song. The German version is by Simrock , 
the poet of the Phine, and is both exact and beautiful. All 
I have attempted in the English translation is free rendering 
of the author. I make no pretensions to poetry. 

RYTHMUS DE GLORIA 

PARADISI. THE GLOEY OF PARADISE. 

Ad perennis vitae fontem For the living fount of glory, 

Mens sitivit arida; Longs my panting thirsty soul, 

Claustra carnis praesto frangi Longs to break its earthly prison, 

Clausa quserit anima : Longs to reach its heavenly goal ; 

Gliscit, ambit, eluctatur To regain its lost dominion 

Exul fr-ui patria. Far beyond the world's control ! 

Z 2 



340 



Augustine's paeaihse. 



Dum pressnris ac serumnis 
Se gemit obnoxiam, 
Quam amisit, dum deliqnit, 
Contemplatiir gioriam, 
Preesens malum auget boni 
Perdidi memoriam. 

Nam quis promat summae pacis 

Quanta sit Isetitia ? 

Ubi vivis margaritis 

Surgunt eedificia 

Auro celsa micant tecta 

Eadiant subliraia. 

Sol is gemmis pretiosis 
Hsec structura nectitnr, 
Auro mundo tan quam yitro 
Urbis via sternitur ; 
Abest limus, deest fimus 
Lues nulla cernitur. 

Hiems liorrens, sestas torrens 
lUae nunquam saeviunt, 
Flos perpetuus rosarum, 
Yer agit perpetuum ; 
Can dent lilia, rubescit 
Crocus, sudat balsamum. 

Virent prata, vernaiit sata, 
Kivi mellis influunt ; 
Pigmentorum spirat odor, 
Liquor et aromatum ; 
Pendent j^oma floridornm 
Non lapsura nemorum. 

Non alternat luna vices, 
Sol et cursus siderum, 
Agnus est felicis urbis 
Lumen inoccidium ; 
Nox et tempus desunt ei 
Diem fert continuum. 



Restless, wayward, weeping, sigbing, 
Mom'ns the soul lier weary road ; 
Feels herself, through sin and Satan, 
Exiled from her loved abode, 
And the thought of former glory 
Much augments her present load. 

Who can paint the joy and gladness 
In the world of angels bright? 
Radiant roofs and golden mansions, 
Sparkling in eternal light ; 
Where no sin, nor death, nor danger, 
Mars the soul's serene delight. 

Who describe the golden glories 
Of the new Jerusalem ? 
Walls of jasper, gates of diamond. 
Every tower a precious gem ; 
No more dying, no more sighing. 
No more sorrow found in them. 

Dreary winters, burning sumnier?:. 
Now disturb our peace no more ; 
Genial spring, in rosy bowers. 
Scatters sweets from shore to shore ; 
Myrrh and lilies, balmy odours, 
Ever sweeter than before. 

Bloomingfieldsandverdantmeadows, 
Oil and honey, milk and wine; 
Sweetly scented herbs and odours 
From the orange, palm, and pine ; 
Fruits for ever ripe ; and clusters 
Pendant from the fruitful vine. 

Night no longer spreads her curtain ; 
Moon and stars no longer shine ; 
Darkness yields to day eternal ; 
Christ their sun can ne'er decline. 
He the light, the lamb, the temple, 
Fills the place with joy divine. 



Augustine's paradise . 



341 



Nam et sancti quique velut 
Sol praeclarus rutulant; 
Post triumphum coronati 
Mutue conjubilant, 
Et prostrati pugnas liostis 
Jam securi numerant. 

■ Omni labe defaecati 
Carnis bella nesciunt, 
Caro facta spiritualis 
Et mens una sentiunt ; 
Pace multo perfruentes 
Scandalum non perferunt. 

Mutabilibus exuti 
Repetunt originem, 
Et prsesentem veritatis 
Contemplantm: speciem, 
Hinc vitalem vivi fontis 
Hauriunt dulcedinem. 

Inde statum semper idem 
Existendi capiunt ; 
Clari, vividi, jucundi 
NuUis patent casibus : 
Absunt morbi semper sanis 
Senectus juventibus. 

Hinc perenne tenent esse 
Nam transire transiit ; 
Inde virent, vigent florent, 
Corruptela corruit, 
Immortalitatis vigor 
Mortis jus absorbuit. 

Qui scientem cuncta sciimt, 
Quid nescire hi queunt ? 
Nam et pectoris arcana 
Penetrant alterutrum; 
Unum volunt, unum nolunt, 
Unitas est mentium. 



Now the saints, like stars in glory, 
Shine around their Father's throne ; 
Now they tell the joyful story, 
Grace triumphant, foes o'erthrown ! 
Glory in the heavenly mansions, 
Glory to the Lord alone. 

Washed from sin's polluting vileness, 
Stilled the inward troubled sea ; 
Law of mind, and law of members, 
Brought to perfect harmony; 
Now their joy is full in Jesus, 
Full to all eternity. 

Freedfrom ch ange an de art'nl ybondage 
They have found their native home ; 
Where they see all truth and beauty 
In the face of God alone ; 
Drinking life from living fountains 
Round the dear Redeemer's throne. 

Now their state is fixed for ever. 
Time and change have passed away ; 
Every gift reflects the giver, 
Through the bright eternal day; 
No more age, and no more sickness. 
No corruption, no decay. 

Here is changeless blest existence. 
And the transient aU is past ; 
Death is dead ; corrupts corruption ; 
All is blissful peace at last ; 
For the laAv of life eternal 
Holds the new creation fast. 

Those who know theOne all-knowing. 
What may they not seek to know ? 
No more secrets; nature's chambers 
All their portals open throw ; 
All desires take one direction, 
All their joys together flow. 



342 



al-gustine's paradise. 



Licet cuiquam sit diversum 
Pro lab ore meritum 
Caritas hoc facit suum 
Quod amat in altero : 
Proprinm sic singulorum 
Pit commune omnium. 

Ubi corpus illic jure 
Congregantur aquilae, 
Quo cum angelis et sanctee 
Kecreantur animse, 
Uno pane vivunt cives 
TJtriusque patriae. 

Avidi et semper pleni 
Habent quod desiderant, 
Non satietas fastidit, 
Neque fames cruciat : 
Inhiantes semper edunt 
Et edentes inhiant. 

Novas semper harmonias 
Vox meloda concrepat, 
Et in jubilum prolata 
Mulcent aures organa, 
Digna per quem sunt victores 
Kegi dant prseconia. 

Felix coeli quae prsesentem 
Begem cernit anima 
Et sub sede spectat alta 
Orbis volvi machinam, 
Solem, lunam, et globosa 
Cum planetis sidera ! 



Each receives a diflPerent portion, 
Various as his works have been ; 
Brother loves each brother's virtue, 
And through love resembles him ! 
Thus each special grace and glory, 
Common to the whole is seen. 

Eagles gather round the carcase ; 
Children eat one common bread ; 
Saints and angels, re-united, 
Glorify one common head ; 
One their hearts,and one their anthem 
" Jesus liveth that was dead." 

Ever full and never cloying, 
All their wishes gratified; 
Life and love and God enjoying, 
What can they desire beside ? 
Ocean streams of joys immortal 
Swell the ever rising tide. 

Ever new harmonious voices 
Raise the joyful song on high ; 
Organs, harps, and various music, 
Chai-m the heart, the ear, the eye ; 
Worthy songs to praise the victor, 
Him who brought them to the sky. 

0 happy hosts in realms of glory ! 
There they behold the living God; 
Sun, moon, and stars beneath them 
rolling. 

And this poor world which once they 
trod ; 

They hear no more the accuser 

tempting. 
No more they feel the chastening rod. 



Augustine's paradise. 



343 



Christe palma bellatorum 
Hoc in municipium 
Introduc me post solutum 
Militare cingiilum, 
Fac consortein donativi 
Beatorum civium. 



Jesus, captain of salvation, 
By thy dying love to men. 



Give me name and place and station 
In thy new Jerusalem ; 
When thy hand unbinds my armour 
Ne'er to he resumed again. 



Praehes vires in infesto 

Laboranti proelio, 

Nec quietem post certamen 

Deneges emerito, 

Teque merear potiri 

Sine fine praemio ! 



Give me, Lord, thy strength in battle, 
Give me faith to trust on thee ; 
Give me rest with thy dear people, 
Who have gained the victory ; 
Let me from thine ocean fulness 
Drink, 0 Lord, eternally ! 



DIE HERKLICHKEITEN DES PAEADIESES. 

Nach der ew'gen Lebens Quelle 
Lechzet meiner Seele Brand, 
Der gefangne Geist durchbrache 
Gern des Leibes engend Band, 
Ringt und miihet sich und Kampfet 
Urns verlorne Yaterland. 

Seufzend fiihlt er sich von Leiden, 
Von Entbehrung schwer gedrutckt, 
Ach, verloren durch die Siinde 
Gieng der Glanz, der ihn geschmiickt, 
Und sein Elend Scharft Erinnrung, 
Wie er einst war hochbegiiickt. 

Denn wer mag die Wonne schildern 
In des Himmels Freudensaal ? 
Wo aus Perlen stehn errichtet 
Prachtgebaude sonder Zahl, 
Und die hohen Dacher golden 
Leuchten in der Sonne Strahl. 



844 



Augustine's paradise. 



Nur aus echten Edelsteinen 
1st erbaut die Himmelsstadt, 
Klares Gold ist alles pflaster 
In dea Strassen, die sie hat, 
Wie zum putze rein von Schmutze, 
Denn kein Unratb findet statt. 

Winters Harte, Sommers Diirre 
ScliafiPet Niemand bier Bescbwer; 
Immer bliiben liier die Eosen, 
Ew'ger Friibling ist nmber, 
Lilian glanzen, Balsam duftet, 
Eotblicb gliibt ein Crocus bier. 

Zwiscben Wiesen, fiischen Saaten 
Wallen Honigbacbe bin, 
Alle Krauter baucben Diifte, 
Die die Liifte siiss durcbzieb'n, 
Und von immer reifen Friiobten 
Scbwankt des Waldes Baldacbin. 

Sonn' und Vollmond, alle Sterne 
Sibt man stats am Himmel stebn : 
Gottes Lamm, der beilgen Statte 
Licbt, mag niemals untergebn ; 
Da ist weder Nacbt nocb Stunde, 
Stater Tag ist da zu sebn. 

Aucb der Heilgen Leiber leucbten 
Dort wie Sonnen bell und Idar, 
Jetzt im Siegeskranze prangend 
Wiinscbt sicb Gllick die werte Scbar, 
Zablt im Lrieden die Besiegten, 
Zablt die Scblacbten vol! Gefabr, 

Alles Wankens iiberboben 
Und des Kampfs mit Fleiscbeslust 
Ist der 1 autre Leib sicb gieicben 
Zieles mit dem Geist bewusst, 
Im Genuss des vollen Friedens 
Kubt von allem Drang cle Brust. 



Augustine's paradise. 



Keinem Weclisel mehr erliegend, 
Jetzt zum Ursprung heimgekehrt, 
Sehen sie das Bild der Wahrheit 
Unverschleiert, unverwehrt, 
Schopfen aus des Lebens Quelle 
Lebenskraft, die ewig wahrt. 

Solcb ein immer gleicher Frieden 
Lachelt in der Ewigkeit, 
Klar und heiter, voiles Leben, 
Ohne Widerwartigkeit, 
Bliih'n sie in gesunder Jugend, 
Krankbeit bleibt und Alter weit. 

Hier ist wandellose Dauer, 
Das Voriiber ist Yorbei ; 
Alles treibt, gedeibt und bliibet, 
Von Verwesung bleibt es frei, 
Denn die Kraft des ew'gen Lebens 
Bracb des Todes Macbt entzwei. 

Die Den kennen, der allwissend, 
Was mag denen nocb entgehn ? 
In der Brust gebeimste Tiefen 
Konnen sie einander selm ; 
Trotz und Eigenwille schweigen, 
Sinneseinbeit bleibt bestehn. 

Ob auch Jeder nach Verdienste 
Seiner Thaten Lobn empfangt, 
Wird des Andem, den er liebet, 
Gliick doch Jedem aufgedrangt, 
Und Gemeingut muss es werden, 
Was dem Einzlen scbien yerbangt. 

Wo ein Leicbnam ist, da stellen 
Gerne sicb die Adler ein ; 
Hier wo mit den beilgen Engeln 
Sel'ge sollen selig sein, 
Leben Biirger beider Welten 
Nur von einem Bret allein. 



346 



ATJGrSTIXE's PARADISE. 



Stats verlangend, stats erlangend 
Haben sie im Uebei-fluss, 
Von des Hungers Noth. gemieden, 
Unbeschwert von Ueberdruss, 
Im. Begeliren schon geniessend, 
Noch begehrend im Genuss. 

Immer neue Harmonien 
Dringen aus den Kehlen vor, 
In der Sanger Jubel stimmend 
Eiihrt der Orgel Klang das Ohr; 
Ihn den Konig aUer Siege 
Preist des Yolkes fi'oher Chor. 

Sel'ge Seele, die da scbauen 
Darfst der Himmel hochsten Herrn ! 
Blickst herab vom hohen Sitze 
Auf das Weltgewolbe fern, 
Siebst um ihre Acbse Kreisen 
Sonne Mond und Wandelstem. 

Christe, palme Deiner Streiter, 
Fiibr in diese Stadt micb ein 
Lose mir den Kriegergiirtel 
Dort in Deiner Kamjjfer Keib'n, 
Lass micb tbeilbaft aucb der Freuden 
Deiner sel'gen Biirger seia. 

Gab St dem Kampfer in der Hitze 
Des Gefecbtes Kraft und Mutb ; 
Gonne dem verdienten Streiter, 
Dass er nach dem Kampfe ruht; 
Lass ibm dann auf ewig werden 
Dicb zum Lohn, du bocbstes Gut ! 



Bonn, May mh, 1853. 



MORNING ON THE LEBANON. 



347 



XIII.— MOKNING ON THE LEBANON. 



Most beautiful vision ! See these multitudinous mountains, 
lying in fearful, appalling subKmity around you ; tbe tops of 
the ridges are naked and bare ; no vegetation, however 
stunted, relieves the weary eye as it wanders over the fright- 
ful uniform desolation; rocks, rocks, and ever more rocks, 
snow on the upper ridges, and the glories of the Syrian sun, 
form the elements of the scene. Now look downwards ! 
These valleys are all full of inhabitants ; the vine, the orange, 
and the oKve, and all the trees of the wood flourish there in 
richest magnificence ; wells of living water, and streams from 
Lebanon, delight the ear, the eye, and the parched lips of 
man. The mists of the morning are now cleared away, and 
lo ! the wondrous scene meets the charmed and delighted 
sense. How varied ! Above you snow, rocks, and barren deso- 
lation ; beneath you, in the innumerable valleys, the richest 
vegetation, cedar groves of gigantic dimensions, and the most 
delicious orchard and garden fruits smile around you ; before 
you, in the distance, is the Mediterranean Sea, without ebb or 
flow as in the days of old. All that is conceivably necessary 
to make up a sublime scene is here. Hill and dale, wood and' 
water, rocks, precipices, and threatening crags ; irreclaimable 
desolation and boundless fertility, vast heights, distances, and 
valleys, burning heat and perpetual snow ; all the elements of 
greatness, littleness, and contrast, meet and mingle in wonder- 
fully attractive proportions ; the attractive and the repulsive, 
the sublime and the beautiful, the appallingly great and 
elegantly Kttle, the patriarchal cedars and the lilies of the 
valley ; all that can attract, delight, or terrify the ear, eye, 
and heart of man, blended together in wild, chaotic, yet har- 
monious confusion, in this upland panorama of the workman- 



348 



CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 



ship of God. There is harmony in the disorder ; the apparent 
lawlessness but intimates a deeper law, and the colours, lines, 
and proportions reveal the skill and perfection of the Divine 
artist. And then the sun, the glorious sun, unites all, tran- 
quillises all, and throws over it all the baptism of his golden 
beams. I have seen nothing like this. The Rhine, the Elbe, 
and the Danube, the Mountains of Wicklow, and the High- 
lands of Scotland, all that I have yet seen must yield to the 
glories of Mount Lebanon. 



XIV.— CEUELTY TO ANIMALS; THE HARE. 

It will no doubt be gratifying to the members of the societies 
against cruelty to animals, to know that their principles were 
known as early as the year 1575. The following pathetic 
complaint and appeal of the poor little hare will, I hope, make 
a deep impression upon hunters and sporting gentlemen of all 
kinds : — 

Elevit lepus parvulus damans altis vocibus 
Quid feci hominibus ; quod me sequuntur canibus ? 
Quid feci hominibus; quod me sequuntur canibus? 
Neque in horto fui, neque olus comedi. 

Quid etc. 

Longas aures habeo, brevem caudam teneo. 
Leves pedes habeo, magnum saltum facio. 
Quando servi vident me, hase ! base ! vocant me. 
Domus mea silva est, lectus mea dura est. 
Dum montes ascendero, canes nihil habeo. 
Dum in aulam venio, gaudet rex at non ego. 
Quando reges comedunt me, vinum bibunt super me 
Quando comederunt me, ad latrinam portant me. 

Bonn, May 2bth, 1853. 



JEWISH 0BJECT10>-S. 



349 



XV.— JEWISH OBJECTIONS; THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 

Jew. — You boast that the prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus 
of Xazareth, but how is this possible ? I maintain that the 
prophecies (1.) connect the coming of the Messiah with the 
glory, happiness, and prosperity of Israel, and (2.) that the 
appearance of Jesus of Nazareth was the cause of dissension 
and ruin to the nation. How then are the prophecies fulfilled 
in him ? He never brought blessing to the nation ! Answer. — 
We must distinguish where God makes a difierence. A multi- 
tude of prophecies referring to the life, birth, character, and 
death of the Messiah for the sins of the people are, you must 
admit, really and truly fulfilled in Jesus of Jfazareth ; see 
Is. ix. 7 ; liii., and others ; other Scriptures, referring to the 
blessing and greatness of the nation, remain yet to be fulfilled. 
How can you expect a blessing from Jesus of ^Nazareth when 
you do not receive him ? I argue thus, if these prophecies 
remain unfidfilled, if you are not blessed in Jesus, the seed of 
Abraham, it is your own fault ; you have none else to blame 
in the matter. You rejected him, and, therefore, your temple 
is destroyed, your land desolate, Jerusalem a habitation of 
strangers, and you yourselves scattered to the ends of the 
earth. 

Jew. — Our scattering was according to the will and wisdom 
of Grod, that we might be witnesses for his unit}^. Christian. — 
Many of the nations, among whom you are now scattered, are 
much stricter believers in the Di^dne unity than you are ;. 
what do you say to the Moslems ? Are not all the European 
nations believers in the Divine unity ? In point of fact you 
are most found, not among the polytheistic, but the monotheistic 
nations of the earth. You are not now Grod's mtnesses as 
you formerly were ; you rather profane and defile the name 
of Jehovah among the heathen ; your worldHness, as a nation, 



S50 



JEWISH OBJECTIOXS. 



is no recommendation to the religion of Moses. Have you 
anytliing else to say ? 

Jew. — I have hardly began yet. The Messiah was to be 
the Frince of Peace; but the Christian nations are warlike, and, 
in point of fact, the greatest wars known to history have been 
planned and executed by Christians. Therefore Jesus is not 
the true Messiah. Answer. — Jesus is the true Messiah notwith- 
standing. If the nations do not keep his commands, you 
cannot set down their disobedience to the score of the gospel. 
His kingdom is a kingdom of peace, his name the Prince of 
Peace, his gospel is peace, the angels' song at his birth was 
peace, and his last blessing was peace. War is contrary to 
the genius of the gospel. I might as well argue that the 
present Jews are not the descendants of Abraham, thus — Grod 
promised the land of Palestine to Abraham and his seed for 
ever, but you are not in possession of that land, and therefore 
you are not the seed of Abraham. 

Jew. — If you can bring yourself to believe that the present 
time is the reign of the Prince of Peace, your faith is 
stronger than Abraham's ! Answer. — At all events we are 
living under the administration of God, and yet we are 
not to set down war and bloodshed, cruelty and rapine, as 
being according to his will. Can you deny that the gospel 
encourages and sanctions the doctrines of universal peace 
and brotherly-kindness? Did Jesus call down fire upon 
his enemies ? Is not his death the best and noblest j)roof 
of the j)acific nature of his kingdom ? 

Jew. — You speak of principles, I want facts ; the Jews are 
scattered, the temple is in ruins, the nations are at war, the 
Christians are all of them worshipping three gods, and the ma- 
jority of them worship a piece of bread and bow down to images, 
and they adore the work of their o^vn hands ; therefore I say 
the Messiah is not come, for all these idols and evils he shall 



THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 



351 



utterly abolisli. Answer. — All idolatry is forbidden in tlie 'New 
Testament. If Christians worship idols, so do the majority 
of the Jewish nation ; the lost ten tribes are idolaters, yet 
the law of Moses does not sanction idolatry. As to peace, we 
have peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Grhost ; we have 
inward peace ; the gospel gives us peace with God in the for- 
giveness of sins through the cross of Christ. We expect, 
too, a time of external peace, when the kingdoms of the world 
will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. 
We do not limit the glorious power of Grod, and, therefore, we 
see many prophecies not yet fulfilled, and among these are the 
prophecies which refer to the Jewish nation in the latter day. 
Deus habet horas et moras. In the meantime don't think you 
can get a blessing from Christ if you do not believe on him. 

Jew. — Salvation does not depend on our opinions, but 
our works ; I am far from believing that Christians do not 
go to heaven ; all religions are essentially the same. The 
existence of Gfod is the foundation, and the superstructures 
may be as various as the nations of the earth are difierent. 
In fact there is a good deal of priestcraft in most religions. 
Answer. — I am astonished to hear a Jew talk in that way ! 
What ? Is idolatry then a trifle ? What advantage then 
has the Jew ? Why do you not at once become Christians ? 
Is the law of Moses no longer Divine ? As for the idea that 
we can get to glory by our good works, I think it right to 
demand what are the works which merit heaven ? But there 
is an important previous question, viz., how shaU we get rid 
of the consequences of our bad works which seem to merit 
hell ? Tell me, is there one of us who has not broken the law 
of God, and if so, how can we merit heaven by our works ? 
However, we are departing from our original theme, that 
Jesus is called the Prince of Peace, and I can only beseech 
you to study his peaceful holy character. Enough has been 



S52 A LETTER TO A KO^[AX CATHOLIC. 

fulfilled in liis person to give us full confidence in his love 
and the efficacy of liis work. The prophecies that remain to 
be fulfilled are also true and certain, and the faithful Proniiser 
^ill, in his o^m.i good time and way, bring them all to pass. 

Bonn. JLr;/ 2-:^tJi. 1S53. 



XYI.— A LETTEE TO A EO^IAX CATHOLIC. 

You ask me what makes the English so Tiolently opposed to 
the Catholic religion ? I reply, the English are not opposed to 
the CaflioJic religion ; on the contrary, they hold fast the name, 
the doctrines, and the discipline of the Catholic chm'ch, and 
they reject Popory, because they think it imcatholic as Trell 
as unchristian. But vrliy are they so opposed to Popery ? 

I. They firmly boliovo that the distinguishing tenets of 
the Popish system are /a -^^ and can never bring the blessing 
of God to the soul. Truth is the jewel of great price, which 
the English prize above all tilings. They see also that hung 
characterises your entire system. The beginning, the 
middle and the end of it is interpenetrated with lies. And 
as the creatm'e-worship, mariolatry, image- worship, and the 
innimierable mediators which you have introduced in the 
place of the gospel are false doctrines, so the practising 
of these has engendered a system of falehood and hnng 
in the daily operations of life. 

Thus, the Pope dispenses ^\ix\l the sanctity of oaths ; the 
Jesuits as a body teach the lawfulness of reserTation, pre- 
varication, and hung, ad majorem Dei gloriam ; the mission- 
aries in India, Sp'ia, and indeed everywhere, asserted the 
most awful lies, in order to get the heathen to receive the 
rite of baptism, and it is the doctrine of the Popish apostacy. 



A LETTER TO A ROMAN CATHOLIC. 



353 



that faith, should not be kept with heretics. "We reject the 
system, therefore, because we believe it to be full of lies. I 
should add here, that lying iconders, too, are characteristic, 
and in perfect keeping with the mendacious character of the 
system, as well as with the predictions of the sacred Scrip- 
tures (2 Thes. ii. 10 ; Eev. xiii. 13 ; xix. 21). Can that 
which contains such manifest and fundamental falsehoods, be 
from the pure and holy God ? 

II. The English love the Bible ; they think that as the sun, 
the moon, and the stars of heaven are intended of the Lord 
to shine upon the earth, so the Word of God is as free to the 
children of God as his works. It is the will of the Author 
of it that we should read and understand it, but your system 
is, and ever has been, and must be, opposed to the reading of 
the Word of God. Your service is in a strange tongue ; your 
priests have the keejDing of the Word of God ; your bishops, 
cardinals, and popes forbid the reading of the Bible, and 
anathematise those who refuse to obey their unholy com- 
mands. Hence in Popish lands you can hardly get a Bible 
at all ; and if you do succeed, it is probably in three or four 
large volumes, and may cost several pounds. Tell me now, 
candidly, if the Bible be the pure and blessed fountain of 
truth, why do you lock it up from the people ? If it favours 
your system, why not give it publicity? Is it not very 
suspicious ? He that loves the truth, cometh to the light. 

III. The English love religious liberty, and therefore they 
reject the Papacy. We look upon Popery rather in the 
Kght of a universal confederation and conspiracy against the 
word of God and the liberties of mankind than a reKgion. 
It is essentially political. Its head is a temporal prince, 
whose cardinals, legates, bishops, and priests, are the spies 
and informers of the Eoman court, throughout the world. 
Its priesthood is the most grasping, unscrupulous, and am- 

A A 



354 "from nature UP TO NATURe's GOD.'* 

bitious of wMcli history, sacred or profane, makes mention ; 
every nation wliich. lias hitherto attained religious liberty, 
has done so by overturning the dominion of the Papacy. 
They felt that Topery and Liberty could not go hand in hand 
in the regeneration of the nations, and I think you yourself 
must admit, that the genius of the Roman Catholic religion 
is opposed to the civil and religious liberties of nations. 

These are three of the reasons which make the English 
opposed to your Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic 
Church." I shall, perhaps, on another occasion, give you 
more. These three are, however, sufficient to determine the 
judgment and reason, for we are persuaded that what is fahe^ 
anti-scriiotural, and tyrannical, can never be the handmaid of 
virtue, or the benefactrix of nations. 

Bonn, May 21t7i, 1853. 



XYII.— "FROM NATURE UP TO NATURE'S GOD.*^ 

Is it possible, from the works of the creation, to arrive at a 
knowledge of the character of the Creator ? Most certainly, for 
the Apostle declares, Rom. i. 19, ro yvtoarov rov Geov, (pavepou 
ecrriv Eu avroig. It is therefore true that that which may be 
known of God is manifest in his works. The sun, moon, 
and stars are his works, and the traces of his glory and 
majesty are inscribed on them all. He is manifest in them 
all, his power sustains, his presence fills, and his love blesses 
them all. There is no want of evidence ; even the heathen 
are without excuse. But is it a fact that we, the fallen race 
of Adam, have ever through natui^e arrived at the idea of a 
perfect, holy, beneficent Grod ? IN^ever ! we never have done 
so, and we never can do so, at least in our present circum- 
stances. Cicero indeed says, " Deum non vides tamen Deum 



"from nature up to nature's god." 355 

agnoscis ex operibus ejus and Aristotle declares, " cnro 
TLJV ipyt-ov Oewpurai o QeogJ' But all this proves notliing, 
as tlie question still remains, what land of a Oeo^ do you see 
in the visible creation ? And universal antiquity, and all the 
ancient and modern mythologies, sufficiently prove that they 
never arrived at the sublime idea of one pure, holy, beneficent 
Almighty Creator. How could they? The testimony of 
nature herself is divided, and seemingly inconsistent. The 
good and the evil are mixed and interpenetrated in the 
natural and moral world so inseparably, that human reason 
avails not to disentangle and trace tbem to their fountains. 
All our history is mixed, the phenomena of the natural world 
are of a mixed character, and drawing our conclusions from 
such disjointed and confused premises, our idea of the 
Creator and Euler must be mixed and imperfect also. Our 
very ideals are, and must be, imperfect, for these can be 
nothing but a heightening and refining of the actualities 
that surround us. Are the heathen gods perfect ? They are 
just deified heroes ; and the good and bad of our nature are 
both equally seen and symbolised in them. We are fallen, 
and sin has marred the visible creation also, so that two main 
elements are wanting in the data from which we can arise from 
-N^ature up to Nature's God. Here now is the point where 
revelation lends us a helping hand, and from a higher source 
unfolds to our dim eyes the glorious perfections of God. It 
gives us the ideal and the real at the same time. The Bible 
reveals the pure and perfect character of the Supreme Ruler ; 
our hearts and thoughts are lifted up to the sublime con- 
templation of a pure, loving, adorable God ; while at the same 
time all this ideal and transcendent excellence and beauty, 
are realized and manifested in the Word made flesh — the 
wonder of the universe — the incarnate Son of God. Here 
we have the glorious antitype of all conceivable and ideal 

A a2 



356 



THE LITTLE CHILD AND THE FATHER. 



excellence, which -the panting, struggling spirit longed after, 
but could not reach ; in which, as in a refuge from the 
storms and waves, our adoring contemplations find their 
sweet resting-place and home. From this perfect Man we 
can reason our way upward to a perfect God. Add infinity 
to all that you find in him, and you have at once the 
delineation of the perfect Creator. — Tlius, grace has bridged 
over the chasm which separated the soul even in her loftiest 
flights from the pure and eternal fountain to which, though 
in ignorance and error, she still longed to return. 

Bonn, Jlay 27ih, 1853. 



XVIII.— THE LITTLE CHILD AND THE FATHER. 

Sweet little smiler, charming beguiler, 

Come, come ! 

0 joy such as this is, thousands of kisses, 
Come, come ! 

■ Here in thy father's breast, loveliest cherub, nest. 
Let little Francie rest, under my tears ! 
Is it not all a dream? feel I my son again? 
Till I came home again days have been yeai-s ! 

Why do you Tvecp. papa ? See on thy cheek, papa, 
Tears rolling thick, papa; why do you weep ? 
Oh, love that like bliss is; joy such as this is. 
Thousands of kisses, that makes me weep ! 

Do you not see mamma, Eddy, and me, papa. 

All do agree, papa, that you must stay ! 

Too long from wife and child, little lamb meek and mild, 

Have I myself exiled — I come home to stay ! 



JESUS AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. 



357 



Sure you won't leave, papa ! again to bereave mamma ! 
Now don't deceive, papa — are you come home ? 
Prattler so cunning, so charming, so winning, 
Leave off your funning ! I am come home ! 

Sweet little smiler, charming beguiler, 

Come, come ! 
Oh ! joy such as this is, thousands of kisses, 

Gome, come ! 



Bonn, May 27th, 1853. 



XIX.— JESUS AT THE EIGHT HAND OF GOD.— Ps. ex. 

The offices of mediation and the exercise of them are 
all found in the adorable Redeemer at all times and in all 
places. This is true of his earthly life, for he put forth his 
prophetic, priestly, and royal authority and power, as occasion 
required. He was, and is always the anointed prophet, 
priest, and king of his Church, yet we may easily conclude, 
from Heb. viii. 4, and other Scriptures, that there is also 
a progressive development of his wonderful character and 
office. Till the Resurrection he was mainly the prophet, the 
teacher, the lamb to be offered up for the errors of the 
people ; from the Resurrection till the Advent, , he is mainly 
the priest, the mediator, and advocate of his people ; from the 
second Advent he shall manifest especially his royal office, 
and God's appointed king. He tvas the prophet, he is the 
priest, and he shall be the king. Let us contemplate him as 
a high-priest in heaven, where he ever lives to make inter- 
cession for us. 0 sweet assurance, 0 most blessed hope ! 
Our brother, in whom we trust, is gone before us as our fore- 
runner ; the way is clear, the door is open, the fountain of 
life and love flowing from the throne on high, invites us all to 



358 



JESUS AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. 



its waters ; the lioliest of all has received the incorruptible 
manna, as a pledge of our abiding and incorruptible inheritance. 
Where the head is there the members shall be; his love, joy, 
peace, and glory are theirs ; he shared our misery and we 
shall share his glory ; He is the example to the inhabitants of 
the heavenly sanctuary of the beauty and blessedness destined 
of the Lord for the redeemed race ! 0 Jesus ! how precious 
is thy love ! Deeply tried, but always victorious : thy tender 
love to poor sinners is the same to-day as when thy heart was 
pierced on the cross of Calvary. And we may use thy name 
and plead thy work before our God ! We may approach the 
holy God as thy disciples, washed, sanctified, and justified 
through thy most precious blood. Come, then, let us adore 
him ; let us make our requests known to God in his name, 
for the Father seeketh such to worship him. It follows as a 
necessary consequence of the exaltation of the Son of Man, 
that the redemption has placed man at the head of the creation, 
as the first, highest, and most glorious of all the creatures 
of God. Most glorious fact, which throws its light over the 
character of both God and man. 

" A hope so great, and so divine, 
May trials well endure, 
And purge our souls from sense and sin, 
As Christ himself is pure." 



Bonn, May 1853. 



EARLY LOVE TO CHRIST. 



359 



JUKE. 

I. Early Love to Christ. II. The Jews ; Objections. III. Advice to a Young 
Minister. IV. 'O Geog ical Uarrip. V. The Ehine. VI. The Living 
Temple. VII. Thoughts on Turkey and the Turks. VIII. Ta eXTTL^ofxeya, 
"Things hoped for." IX. Free-thinking among the Jews. X. Arabic 
Anecdotes. 



I.— EAKLY LOVE TO CHEIST. 

The young heart is fresh and warm and vigorous in its 
longings and aspirations ; the evil ways of the world are at 
least partly unknown ; contending passions have not yet 
hardened it ; disappointments have not soured it, and, like 
the flowers and the dewy earth, it is ready for the blessings 
of the Sun of righteousness. Prevention, they say, is better 
than cure ; it is easier to educate the young, and better than 
to build prisons for them or hang them, when through neglect 
they have become criminals. Jesus, too, shows his tenderest 
love on many occasions to children; he made them examples 
for his disciples, and sharers of his kingdom. All this teaches 
the advantage and blessedness of early dedication to the service 
of the Lord. I find no moral greatness so beautiful and so 
attractive as that of a young man fully and heartily devoted 
to the service of God. On the other hand there is no sight 
more thoroughly pitiable than an old man trembling on the 
edge of the grave, without any serious thought of the world 
to which he is hastening. Voltaire and Anacreon, the types 
of hoary-headed blasphemy and revelry, seem to be the 



360 



EARLY LOVE TO CHRIST. 



acme of repulsive and disgusting improprieties. Old Hobbes' 
" leap in the dark'* is more modest and manly. But the 
young mind, actively engaged in the pursuit of virtue, is the 
noblest jewel in the crown of Jesus : the love is warm, and 
the foot is swift, and the arm is strong. The soldier is in 
the vigour of manhood, and capable of executing his captain's 
commands. He can enter into the "gaudia certaminis" of 
the spiritual conflict, and triumph over his enemies, through 
the wisdom and strength of his prince. Seek, then, to give 
your young hearts to Jesus, and remember that his eye is 
ever upon you, and his ear ever open to your cry. Be strong 
in his strength, and seek guidance from his wisdom. 



One there is who loves us dearly, 
0 how precious is his love ! 

One who pardons fully, freely. 
From his throne of grace above. 

One there is who came to see us. 
From the realms of glory blest; 

He who lived and died to free us, 
With the load of sin oppressed. 

One there is who ne'er forgets us, 
On his throne of grace on high ; 

Ever gentle, ever loving, 
And his help is always nigh. 

One there is who loves for ever. 
All who seek his love to share ; 

And his mercy, like a river. 
Waters all that weary are. 

One there is whose loving bosom 
Welcomes little children dear. 

Tells them of the heavenly kingdom, 
With its sky so bright and clear. 



THE JEWS ; OBJECTIONS^ 



361 



Hear his name ! His name is Jesus ! 

His is love that knows no end; 
His the pitying eye that sees us ; 

He the sinner's only friend. 

Bonn, June 7th, 1853. 



n.— THE JEWS; OBJECTIONS. 

A Jew said to me tlie otlier day, "Mr. Graham, I am 
conyinced of the truth of Christianity ; the prophecies you 
refer to are fulfilled in the person of J esus of Nazareth ; all 
is true, you have the best of the argument, and the Jews are 
overthrown, and yet I cannot, dare not, become a Christian.'* 
" Why not ''I have taken an oath long ago, never to change 
my religion ; I am sorry for it, but I cannot help it ; my wife 
is a strict Jewess, but there are my children, take them and 
educate them in the Christian religion." This is often the 
case ; the parents or the fanatical Rabbis make the young 
Jews take the most fearful oaths never to leave the religion 
of Moses. They hate Christianity as Hannibal's father did the 
Romans. The most current objections put forth by the Jews 
are the following : — 1st. The Jewish nation rejected the 
claims of Jesus, and therefore he cannot be the Messiah. 
2n.d. The prophecies that refer to the glory and prosperity of 
the J ews have never been fulfilled in him. 3rd. The change 
of the Sabbath and the overthrow of the Jewish polity and 
the holy city, is contrary to the will of God. 4th. In the 
times of the Messiah wars shall cease, idolatry be over- 
thrown, peace be universal, the Jews happy and victorious, 
but this has never taken place, and therefore the Messiah is 
not yet come. 5th. The Christian system seems to destroy 



362 



THE jews; objections. 



the unity of God, and the doctrine of mediation is unneces- 
sary. These and other similar objections are frequently met 
with among the Jews. The Rationalists take a shorter road 
in coming to the same conclusion. Their summary process is 
something like the following : ''All religions have the germ 
of truth in them — the unity and attributes of the Deity, the 
inculcation of the moral ^drtues, and the doctrine of a future 
life. These are the substance, and all the rest is form, 
ceremony, and priestly traditions. Many of the ideas 
associated in the Christian mind with the person of the 
Redeemer, are beautiful, true, and of eternal importance, 
and their operation on the mind must be the same, whether 
he was really the Son of Grod or not. All religions are true, 
though not all equally so, and yet all contain much that is 
false, nonsensical, and derogatory to the true character of 
God." 

The most popular arguments for Christianity are the 
following : — 1st. The Scriptui-es are fulfilled in the person, 
work, and sacrifice of Christ. 2nd. Its j^rogress and triimiphs 
in the apostolic ages show it to be of God. 3rd. The well- 
substantiated miracles by which its doctrines have been con- 
firmed. 4th. It is founded only on facts : the birth, life, 
death, and resui^-ection of Jesus Christ are historical facts, 
and far removed from the fancies and speculations of other 
religions, oth. I defy you to bring one argument for Juda- 
ism which I cannot apply to Christianity. 6th. The doctrines 
of the New Testament are like God, and they suit the wants 
of man ; the craving, longing, and fears of the human mind 
are met and satisfied in the gospel. These are some of the 
arguments which the Je^^ish missionary should be fully 
prepared upon, as most likely to bring conviction to the mind 
of the Jewish people. 



ADVICE TO A YOUNG MINISTER. 



363 



nr.— .iDYICE TO A YOUNG MINISTEE. 

The first and most iinportaiit matter, dear brother, is the 
preaching of the gospel. You are called of Grod, and ap- 
pointed to this great and laborious calling, and you should 
seek to show yourself to be a workman that need not be 
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Study is 
necessary, otherwise your discourses will become pointless, 
and the continual round of a few Scriptural truths will 
make both the people and yourself indifferent. Enter into 
the full mind of the Spirit, in the wondrous plan of redeem- 
ing love, and as the mind opens, and the heart enlarges, 
the affections will become inflamed vdth. zeal and love for 
the salvation of souls. The longer you abide on the Mount, 
the more your face will shine. There is no tonic for the 
mind better than prayer ; and in the presence of, and fel- 
lowship with, greatness, goodness, and divine majesty, the 
dwarfishness and earthliness of our character gradually pass 
away. All the successful pastors we read of were men of 
prayer, and Chalmers had a proverb which he used very 
often, " A man of prayer is a man of power." Apart from 
the direct blessings which are promised to prayer, the exer- 
cise itself has a very blessed and ennobling influence on the 
mind. It makes us better men — humble, lowlier, and more 
contented. You should labour hard. Think of Jesus Christ 
and his apostles ; think on the faithful preachers and martyrs 
of former times ; think of the value of souls, the price paid 
for them, the torments of hell to be avoided, and the glories 
of heaven to be won. Think of your time, how short it is, 
and how, though you may neglect your duty, the world does not 
stand still, nor sin cease to harden, nor the seducer to tempt, 
nor the thousand evil influences to deaden the conscience 
and corrupt the heart. Your position, as a believer, is in 



364 



ADVICE TO A YOUNG MINISTER. 



heaven ; you are risen with Christ, and from the elevation of 
his throne you should look down on the world, and all its 
vanities. I advise you to rise early. Seven hours are 
enough in bed ; I make it a point for myself to rise at six, 
viz., to be in my study at six, summer and winter. This 
gains a good deal of time. Be sure you forget nothing you 
have ever learned. Many young men, when they have gone 
through their studies, and gained comfortable parishes, lay 
aside their books, whereas all that teachers and professors 
can do is to put you in the way of studying for yourself. 
But not only should you moi forget, you should increase your 
stores of knowledge continually. I shall give you an ex- 
ample of what I mean. You have read some Greek and 
Hebrew ; now, if you shut the Hebrew and Greek Bible and 
Testament, your knowledge of the sacred Scriptures in the 
original tongues will speedily vanish ; so that, at last, you 
will be able only with difficulty to compare a passage with 
the original. Take my advice, and it will be otherwise with 
you. Eead one chapter in Greek every morning, and one 
in Hebrew every evening, and before ten years you will read 
the Bible in both languages as easily, intelligently, and 
fluently as in English. If the ministers of the Presbyterian 
Church in Ireland would follow out this suggestion, they 
would speedily become the first Greek and Hebrew biblical 
scholars in the world. This practice will not only keep you 
where you are, but lead you onward along your literary road ; 
it will also open up many sources of pure and blessed enjoy- 
ment which translations cannot give, and your mind will 
meet the people's, in your ministrations, with the freshness 
and vigour which are best supplied from the fountain-head 
itself. 

Bonn, June lOi/i, 1853. 



GOD AND FATHER. 



365 



IV. — l^v^apiGTOWTEQ TO) Obm Kai irarpl avrov. — Col. in. 17. 
GOD AND FATHER. 

The soul of religion is thankfulness. The heart which 
feels its wants, and knows where to find a supply, must be 
thankful. All the terrors which sin and Satan have brought 
into the soul have passed away through the mercy of God, 
and the serene sunshine of hope and forgiveness irradiates 
the heart. The object of our thanks is God. To him we 
lift up our souls in constant adoration and praise. His gifts 
supply all our wants, his hand sustains our feeble strength, 
his eternal love fills us as the vessels of his mercy. We see 
him, hear him, feel him, in all things — the beauty, strength, 
and steadfastness of the material creation are but the faint 
manifestations of his excellence. God ! what awful glories 
surround that name ! The boundless, endless, omnipotent, 
omniscient, all-pervading, eternal God. But he is our 
Father also. This stills our fears. Gcoc and irarrip are 
united in the same glorious person; illimitable power no 
longer appals, for we know it is guided by love ; love is no 
longer a helpless, inefiicient sentiment of pity, for it is sup- 
ported by infinite power. He whom we adore is both God 
and Father. Nature reveals his godhead (Rom. i.), the 
Bible his paternity, and thus the works and the word of God 
unite to encourage and support the believer. The power 
and the purpose of the Deity are made known in these two 
names. He is God, and we tremble before him; he is 
Father, and our fears subside. He can and he tot II bless us. 
That o Gfoc K^cLL irarrip, by the usage of the Greeks, denote 
one and the same person, is manifest ; and the meaning is 
— Deus qui idem pater est. He who is God and Father. 
See the following passages : — 1 Pet. i. 3 ; 2 Pet. i. 11 ; ii. 



366 



THE RHINE. 



20 ; PMl. iv. 20 ; Epli. i. S ; 2 Cor. iii. 3. As bearing on 
the person of Clirist, see, among others, Titus ii. 13; Jude 
1, 4 ; and 2 Thes. i. 12. Winer's objections in these three 
instances are frivolous, and arise from his neological tenden- 
cies. He says, indeed, 2 Thes, i. 12, reduces itself simply to 
this, that Kvpio^ is used for o kv^'ioq ; viz., simply, Winer 
makes Scripture, instead of interpreting it. So the expres- 
sion, Iv ry jSadtXsm tov ^piarov Kai Oeov (Eph. v. 5), must 
mean, according to the analogy of the language, the kingdom 
of him who is Christ and Grod. Whj should o Qeog Kal 
7rari)p denote only one person, and o ^piarog Kal Ocog 
necessarily two ? There is no reason, save that Arians are 
unwilling to believe that Jesus Christ is Oeoq. This prin- 
ciple is important, and has a wide application in the Scrip- 
ture. 

Bonn, June 11th, 1853. 



Y.— THE RHINE. 

Most noble river ! How human works, and human toil, 
and human existence, are all mocked by the perpetual flow 
of thy silent waters. Ages roll on, and empires rise and 
fall ; but this peaceful, placid, silvery stream holds on its 
ceaseless march. The Rhine land is the land of fable. Tradi- 
tion, ever busy, has peopled the hills and the valleys, the 
rocks and the fountains, with the memories of the past, 
boundless as the imagination, gorgeous and many-coloured 
as the all-bespanning bow ; here heraldry, chivalry, and the 
robber knights performed their exploits, in which daring 
and submission, abject superstition and proud defiant inde- 
pendence were so strangely blended. It is the land of 



THE RHINE. 



367 



song ; tlie fine climate, the noble river, tlie comfort of the 
people, the cities, the vineyards, and the high civilisation 
which for ages has had its home here, all conspire to make 
the people joyous, cheerful, and musical. This is the fact. 
A people may be musical, and yet produce few poets or 
composers of music. Look at Spain, where singing is uni- 
versal. But here, on the Bhine, they are musical as a 
nation, and they have had great poets and composers. 
Rhine is a fortunate word, inasmuch as it rhymes with wine, 
and this has contributed in no small degree to associate the 
majestic river with the socialities, habits, and entire domestic 
life of the people. But it a great historic river — taking its 
place in the memorials of nations with the Kile, the Euphrates, 
and the Tiber. It witnessed the defeat of Yarns by the 
German nations, and thenceforth formed the boundary of 
the Roman conquests. The cities of the Rhine, and espe- 
cially Cologne, played a conspicuous part in the dark ages, 
when priests ruled the world, and emperors kissed the toes 
of the Pope ; while in the breaking forth of light and re- 
formation, a few small provinces, fertilised by its waters, 
did not hesitate, in the name of God, for the defence of their 
liberties and to overthrow the Inquisition, to bid defiance 
to the whole power of Spain and the authority of the Pope. 
Honour to the brave ! There are few names in history more 
worthy of record than that of William the Silent, even as 
there is no episode in universal history more spirit-stirring 
and ennobling than the revolt of the IN'etherlands. The 
Rhine, the bridge of Mayence, witnessed the conquering 
legions of Napoleon, as they passed onwards, in the pride of 
power, to the plunder and conquest of the German nations 
— witnessed them, too, after the overthrow of Leipsic, for- 
lorn and dejected, as they fled to their native land before 
the vengeance of an indignant and liberated world. All is 



368 



THE RHINE. 



historic on tlie Rhine; its waters sweetly blend into the 
voice of history, which leaves, again, its echo reverberating 
in endless variety of tone and distinctness among these val- 
leys and hills. But is not the scenery of the Rhine beau- 
tiful ? It is beautiful — very. But, with the exception of the 
river, there is nothing to be compared with the Highlands 
of Scotland, the Wicklow Mountains, or the Lakes of Kil- 
larney. From Bonn to Heidelberg is beautiful, and, with- 
out doubt, far surpasses the Danube and the Elbe. In the 
summer it is thronged with steamers, who bear thousands of 
our countrymen from their island home to the recreation and 
variety of continental scenes. Some come for health, some 
for pleasure, many because they are weary with home and 
home restraints, some for the education of their children. 
I have heard it asserted, there are a thousand invalids, a 
thousand insane, and a thousand English in Bonn ; and 
this was considered proof positive that the place was the 
healthiest, the pleasantest, and the most convenient on the 
Rhine. On the whole, they are not the best specimens of 
our countrymen who visit foreign lands. There is, indeed, 
a fair proportion of them excellent moral and religious men ; 
and I have seen none of them anywhere who were not bene- 
volent and kind. The character which the English sustain 
in Germany is the following : — They are rich, headstrong, 
religious, proud, holding down their heads, kopfhangers, 
who go twice to church on Sunday ; they are made to be 
plundered, and nobody spares them, for it is known John 
Bull is a man of importance, and has a heavy purse. He is 
believed to be fond of good living, and in most German 
towns you notice the word beefsteaks on sign-boards, as a 
bait for the beef-eating islanders. This propensity is felt to 
be universal, and I have seen potrjSf*^ (rosbef) standing at 
the head of a bill of fare in Athens. How different the 



THE TEMPLE OF GOD. 



369 



feelings and the associations of the Rhine from those of the 
Jordan. I have bathed in them both, and prefer the fish 
of the lake of Tiberias to those of the Ehine. There are, 
indeed, men to whom fish is fish, and water only water. 
With such I have no argument. For me Thermopylae is 
more than a cow- gap, and Olivet, Tiberias, Jordan, JN^aza- 
reth, and Jerusalem, five words, which purify and elevate 
the nations. Where materialism prevails the traveller will 
prefer the Rhine ; where idealism, he will infinitely prefer 
the Jordan. On the Jordan you feel yourself among Divine 
things, and the heart draws near to Him whose baptism 
is still the baptism of love. 

Bonn, June Ibth, 1853. 



VL— THE TEMPLE OF GOD.— 1 Cok. vi. 19, 20. 

The names and dignities of the Redeemed Church are 
worthy of the person and character of the Redeemer. They 
are the trees of His planting, the fruits of His dying 
love, the house of His habitation, and the temple where He 
is to be worshipped for evermore. The wonderful union of 
the deity with human nature in the person of the Son of 
Grod is the foundation stone, the corner stone, and the top 
stone in this immortal building. Round this fact of facts — 
this immense and substantial pole of the new creation, move 
in stately and harmonious order all the prophecies, promises, 
and doctrines of the Gfospel. This is the basis of the 
pyramid whose summit reaches to the heavens ; this is the 
centre of the great circle in which the manifold fulness of 
the Godhead flows forth over the creation. Without this 
there were no living temple, no redemption in the cross, and 

B B 



370 



THE TEMPLE OF GOD. 



no eternal weights of glory for the believer. But what is 
this temple ? Answer — It is the church of God redeemed by 
the Son, sanctified by the Spirit, and glorified by the Father 
Almighty. It includes and embraces all ages, generations, 
and nations, in so far as grace and love have been realised 
among the sons of men. This is the innumerable company 
mentioned in the Apocalypse as the redeemed from the 
earth ; this is the family of God into which we are born by 
a new birth, the garden in which we are planted by Divine 
grace, the ark of salvation which can bear us through the 
tempests into the harbour of eternal rest. Be not deceived. 
This temple is not Christendom, nor the Papacy, nor the 
true visible church, but the real invisible church, the faithful 
in J esus Christ, who shall certainly and finally through faith 
and perseverance enter the heavenly kingdom. They are 
known by their fruits. Their life a sacrifice of love, the 
fruits of righteousness and peace adorn their character ; their 
death is tranquil or victorious, and their memory is blessed. 
They are rich and poor, but they have all one master, Christ. 
They are high and low, but they all surround one heavenly 
throne of grace. They have various capacities, but they are 
all full; various gifts, but they are all employed; various 
hopes, but they are all bright, like the many stars of the one 
glorious heaven ; some of them are gently built up into the 
living temple like Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened; 
others are torn from the stock of nature with the violence of 
a tempest ; some of them spend their days in the quietude of 
unobtrusive obedience and love, and others must gird on the 
armour of the soldier and fight the battles of the faith. 
Many of them are early transplanted into the heavenly 
garden ; others like Jacob in a good old age yield their 
spirits into the hands of their Creator ; and not a few of the 
faithful witnesses of Jesus have through their faithfulness 



THOUGHTS ON TURKEY AND THE TURKS. 371 

unto death been honoured with the martyr's crown. How 
various are the stones in this living temple ! But they are 
all in it. They are all necessary for its strength, complete- 
ness, and beauty, but its chief glory is, that the Lord God 
Almighty fills it with His presence. This is His rest ; here 
He shall remain for ever, in the nearest closest communion 
with His ransomed people. Brother, have you thought of 
this temple? are you in it? The question is well worth 
thinking of. 

" 0 Domine Deus ! speravi in Te, 
O care mi Jesu, nunc libera me 
In dura catena ; in misera poena 

Desidero Te 
Lauguendo, gemendo, et genuflectendo 
Adoro, imploro, lit liberes me." 

Bonn, June l^th, 1853. 



VII.— THOUGHTS ON TURKEY AND THE TUKKS. 

I am no friend of the pretensions of Russia, against whose 
semi-savage vehemence the more civilised nations of Europe 
may be yet called upon to defend their liberties and their 
homes ; neither am I any friend of the Turks, the barbarians 
from the North, who, for a time, made Europe tremble for 
its Christianity and independence, and finally settled down as 
plunderers and conquerors in the fairest regions of the globe. 
The Turks should be banished out of Europe, and the city of 
Constantino purged from the desecration of a foreign faith. 
There are five millions of Greeks in the Turkish Empire ; 
there are perhaps ten millions of Christians, and these, if they 
do not shew themselves both cowards and slaves, might form 

BB 2 



372 



THOUGHTS OX TURKEY 



on the Bosplionis an empire able to bridle the ambition of 
Russia, and sow the seeds of a new life and higher civilisation 
among the decaying populations of the East. The present 
government of the Turks is what it ever was, partial, 
tyrannical, and cruel ; and nothing but its weakness and the 
commanding position of the Christian nations restrain it from 
the crusades of conquest and extermination which charac- 
terised the standard of the Prophet in former times. They 
are not changed. The name of Christ and Christian is still 
a mockery and a scorn to these barbarous unbehevers, and if 
they give you any appellation better than dogs, and swine, and 
slaves, you are honoured beyond your deserving. How often 
have I heard them say, as we went through the streets of Da- 
mascus, May God sweep them from the face of the earth," 
while at the same time they spat upon the ground and looked 
sourer than even Turks ordinarily look. What right, save the 
right of successful plunder, have these armed bands to settle 
down in countries not their own, and possess themselves of 
the cities, palaces, and treasures of a civilised empire ? The 
Christians are, by the religion and law of the State, the slaves 
of the conquerors ; they must pay the capitation tax, the 
price of existence, for liberty to live in their own lands ; and 
the fruits of their industry may at any time be seized by the 
blood- sucking harpies of irresponsible Pachas, who, dependent 
on the nod of the Sultan, generally make the most of theii' 
time and position to enrich themselves by the plunder of the 
people. It is a scandal and reproach to the civilised nations 
of the East and the West, that the Turkish hordes have been 
permitted to pollute the classic countries of antiquity, and 
fatten on the spoils of unrighteous aggression so long. All 
power is in their hands ; they have not blended with the 
conquered nations as the Saxons did with the Britons, or the 
victorious Goths with the subjugated Romans. Nor is the 



AND THE TURKS. 



373 



ttimiliation of conquest mitigated by admission to a share in 
the public administration ; the rulers of cities and provinces, 
the captains of the armies, the admirals of the sea- forces, the 
ministers of the crown, are in fact mostly foreigners, and must 
of necessity be Moslems, so that aliens in blood, language, 
and religion tyrannise over the nations who, in former ages, 
directed the stream of history, and filled the whole world 
with their renown. The Egyptians, the Arabs, and the 
Greeks are better and nobler races than the Turks, and 
occupy in the records of the historian a more conspicuous 
place, yet they must bow their necks to their foreign masters- 
The Pacha of Damascus is a Turk (was when I was there), 
surrounded by a clique of Turks from Constantinople, who 
knows not a word of the Arabic language, and, apart altogether 
from religion, is as alien and foreign to the Arabs of Syria as 
a French government would be in London or Berlin. If the 
oppressed nations were to arise and say to their foreign task- 
masters. We will submit no longer to your dominion ; we are 
fifteen millions, and you, the governing Turks, are not more than 
six or seven, we resist and overthrow your despotism ; — would 
they be doing anything but assuming the rights which, in 
England, have been consecrated by the successful resistance to 
tyranny, and are publicly recognised with more or less clear- 
ness by the civilised nations of ancient and modern times ? 
"We justify the Greek revolution, and helped in so far to dis- 
member the Turkish Empire ; why should not the Arabs 
establish their independence also ? But perhaps it is only a 
choice of masters, and if the Turks were overthrown the 
Russians would, with their equally crushing tyranny, step into 
the vacant throne. It might be so, but it is neither neces- 
sary nor highly probable ; and if they did so, it would weaken 
rather than strengthen their power. Extent of territory does 
not necessarily increase the resources of a nation. Russia 



374 



THOUGHTS OX TUHKET AXD THE TURKS. 



would tlien be an OTergroTm monster, and speedily fall to 
pieces from its o^vn weiglit. It is a wild dream to imagine 
that tlie same power coidd long rule over ^loscow, Petersburg, 
Constantinople, Bagdad, Damascus, and Cairo. iS'o I The 
Greeks have tasted the sweets of liberty, and would never 
submit again to tbe yoke of a stranger ; tbe Arabs and 
Egyptians, uneasy enougb under the yoke of foreigners, 
tbougb Moslems, would never submit permanently to a foreign 
Christian dominion; and the seven millions of dethroned 
Turks, long accustomed to command, would be a festering 
wound, which woidd exhaust the powers of the most stable 
government. But if all this should be otherwise, and Russia 
should really attain to the dominion in the Turkish Empire, 
it would be the triumph of Christianity over Mohammedanism, 
of a progressive reforming despotism over an equally despotic 
but stagnant barbarism. But, as I said before, it is in my 
opinion highly improbable that Russia shall ever possess the 
empire of the successors of Othman, and if she did, she 
would be less formidable than she now is to the rights and 
liberties of mankind. But it may be asked will the Ottoman 
power fall ? Answer — It must, it will, and it should fall, for 
its course has not been like the beneficent river, fertilising 
the barren wilderness, and emiching kingdoms and provinces 
with fertile fields and the triiunph of peaceful arts, but rather 
like the tornado which prostrates the monuments of human 
industry, and makes desolate. the blooming face of nature itself. 
The population is not increasing as in other coimtries ; it is 
in. many places stationary, and in most diminishing, so that, 
even if let alone, Turkey must perish for want of Tm-ks. 
Egypt, the granary of the ancient world, has sunk into 
insignificance in their hands ; Syria was by far the most pro- 
ductive province of the Roman Empire, containing innu- 
merable cities and a teeming population ; it is now reduced 



THINGS HOPED FOR. 



375 



to a desert, traversed by tlie homeless descendants of Ishmael. 
The noble valley of Jezreel could sustain two millions of in- 
habitants, and the whole land, under a fair, liberal, strong 
government, would easily sustain ten times its present 
inhabitants. In one word, the cities are in ruins, the 
scattered villages miserable and unsafe, the finest valleys 
untilled, and the whole aspect of the country abandoned and 
desolate. Such are the blessings of Turkish rule. Change 
would give the possihility of improvement ; it is not easy to 
conceive how any change could make matters worse. 

Bonn, June IQth, 1853. 



VIII.— THINGS HOPED FOE.— Ta eXTrt^o/zem.— Heb. xii. 1. 

"We are created by the Grod of love to enjoy the luxury 
of hoping as well as believing, of anticipating and preparing 
for the future as well as ruminating on the treasures of the 
past. He that made us knows our frame, and has provided 
for our wants. He has spread over us, as Christians, a 
radiant heaven, from which many stars of hope beckon us 
onward to the promised rest. Hope is the most ethereal, 
elevating, and unworldly of all our faculties, and in the right 
use and enjoyment of it, the heavenly mind of the Christian 
mainly consists ; and consequently the mind that dilates over 
the things hoped for in the Bible will become large and 
generous, comprehensive and benevolent. But what are 
these things ? They are the brighter and better land than 
this ; the Living Temple above, where God is to be worshipped ; 
the many-mansioned House of our Father in the heavens. 
We shall meet again ; the grave shall yield its charge to the 



376 



THINGS HOPED FOR. 



voice of tlie Son of God, and the long-broken ties of friend- 
ship and affection shall be renewed and perfected in the 
kingdom of glory; we shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and 
Jacob, and all the aj)Ostles and prophets, and the glorious 
army of the martyrs around the throne of Grod and the 
Lamb ; we shall see the reversal of the curse, and the over- 
throw of the enemies of Christ, and the triumphs of re- 
deeming love, and the imclouded glories of the incorruptible 
J ehovah in his house and kingdom. All that could trouble 
the well-being of the saints is removed. No death any 
more, nor pain, nor sin, nor separation from those we love ; 
Satan roars no longer seeking to devour us, and the flesh is 
no more rebellious to the will of God, and all the powers of 
the sinful creation in us and around us, have been extin- 
guished in the resurrection from the dead. Harmony reigns 
within the soul, as well as in the external world, and the 
well-regulated society of the redeemed, filled and interpene- 
trated with the presence and love of God, shall offer up to 
him who is worthy the perfect and perpetual sacrifice of 
adoration and praise. We shall see Jesus, the Mediator and 
Redeemer, whom not having seen we love, and in his glorious 
person we shall find for ever new sources of wonder and 
delight, new and fresh manifestations of the all-working, 
all- wondrous, all- glorious God. For ever approaching, and 
for ever at infinite distances from the unutterable, illimitable 
Creator, our expanding faculties, and widening vision, and 
adoring love, shall find in him and in his works their ever- 
lasting satisfaction and joy. The rivers of joy at his right 
hand, of which the Scripture speaks, shall be for ever free 
and for ever full ; the triple crown, the crown of glory, of 
righteousness, and life shall be worthy of him who gives and 
procured it for the believer ; the innumerable company of 
the redeemed, the palm-bearers and kings of the new creation, 



FREE-THINKING AMONG THE JEWS. 



377 



beautiful and various as the stars, shall shine for ever in the 
firmament of their Father. We are unable to conceive the 
glory of the place, but we may be sure it will be worthy of 
the grace and majesty of God ; it will be the result of his 
eternal plan in the redemption of the fallen race, by the 
mediation of his incarnate Son — it will be the proof and 
demonstration to the angels and the universe, how high 
Grod can elevate the fallen, how glorious and beautiful he 
can make the dust of the earth, how expansive and capacious 
the soul of man is — the demonstration to the angels and the 
whole creation, that the curse of sin is obliterated by the 
Serpent-bruiser, according to ancient promise, that the 
harmony of the universe, broken by the first is restored and 
made sure for ever by the second Adam, the Lord from 
heaven : that the grave has been robbed of its prey, and 
the prison doors of Hades unbarred, the law of the righteous 
moral Governor vindicated and sanctioned, even in the pardon 
of the sinner, and a whole polluted and sin- wrinkled world 
restored to more than paradisaical glory. These are great 
hopes, and do they not draw thy heart, brother, to the one 
glorious centre, Jesus Christ, in whom they all have their 
root and tenure ? Is he not the Divine-human, and there- 
fore the home of all human hearts, that seek to resemble 
the Divine ? 



IX.— FREE-THINKING AMONG THE JEWS. 

Tempera mutantur et nos mutamur in illis ! The force of 
events carries along the current, and we are neither able to 
cross nor stem the stream! The Italians detest the Pope, 
and would gladly see him sinking in the Tiber ; the English 



378 



FREE-THINKING 



cliiircli, for centuries tlie defence and bulwark of Protes- 
tantism, shows unequivocal leanings towards the Papacy; 
in Ireland, the bonds between the Papist and the priest — yea, 
the very bonds between the peasant and the soil, are breaking 
up ; the Turks are proclaiming liberal opinions, and curbing 
their long-indulged ferocity. I have heard the bloody 
Claverhouse defended by Scotchmen! and as to the French, 
what shall we say to their liberty, equality, and fraternity ? 
That nation of gallant men and cavaliers, like an over- grown 
calf, too fond of its milk, has put on an imperial muzzle, 
so that for every effort to fill its lank sides with life and 
literature, it is sure to receive a friendly monition either from 
the heels or the horns of its irritated mother ! Wonders 
will never cease ; the Jews are becoming free-thinkers, and 
the strait-jacket of Pabbinical ceremonialism is bursting 
at all its seams. They live like the Christians, open their 
saloons to the great and the noble, and being asked in return 
they follow the Christian principle of eating what is set 
before them, asking no questions for conscience' sake ; many 
of these reformed, free-thinking Jews, have received the 
rite of baptism, but without any accurate knowledge of its 
doctrines, or love towards its Founder. Enter into conversa- 
tion with one of this class, and if he is in a talking humour 
he makes some such confession as the following : — " I am 
not opposed to Christianity or any other religion, as I am 
persuaded that every man may be saved in the religion in 
which he was born ; we must be judged (if there is to be a 
judgment) by our actions and not by our opinions ; there 
are many admirable things in Christianity; 1 Cor. xiii. 
should be inscribed upon all corners of the streets in letters 
of gold ; my daughter became a Christian, to please her 
husband, and I did not forbid her ; my niece became ac- 
quainted with priests, who persuaded her that without be- 



AMONG THE JEWS. 



879 



lieving on Jesus, she could not be saved, and I bouglit her 
a New Testament, and allowed her to follow lier convictions. 
For my own part, I think it is dishonourable to change our 
religion, and the motives for it are often impure, but if others 
think differently, I have no quarrel with them on that ac- 
count. I believe in no immediate revelation, and thus I get 
rid of all the difficulties of inspiration and the contradictions 
of religious books ; but I admit that the deity has revealed 
himself mediatehj through his works, as well as through the 
teaching of sages and philosophers. All goodness and beauty 
and truth are from Him, wherever they are found, and he 
can and does employ the most various means to make them 
known to mankind. This is my creed ; you may call me a 
free-thinker (Freigeist) if you like, but I know many Jews 
and Christians who are of the same opinion." Thus it is 
with opinions, creeds, and political constitutions ; they are 
gradually undermined by the influence of time, the change 
of human habits, and the exhaustion of their supporters, and 
then the first vehement tempest carries them away. The 
stern faith of the Jew, which nearly two thousand years of 
persecution only strengthened, yields before the indifference 
which tolerates, or the justice which treats him like other 
citizens and subjects ; the fury of the Moslem conquerors, 
which seemed at one time to admit of no limit but the 
habitable globe, has subsided into channels which are fast 
drying up, and neither the swords of Toledo nor the blades 
of Damascus possess any more their ancient keenness. 
Christianity is indeed, we may hope, an exception to the 
law which has hitherto governed the destinies of kingdoms, 
religions, and nations. It has, like its Author, life in itself. 
It possesses the principle of immortality, and from every 
seeming defeat rises to renewed triumphs, from every eclipse 
to more cloudless splendour, nor shall it lay off the armour. 



380 



ARABIC ANECDOTES. 



till the peaceful banner of the cross shall wave over every 
nation of the subjugated world. 



X.— AKABIC ANECDOTES. 

The Arabs respect age, rank, and valour more than most 
nations, and when any one pretends to a place or position 
which does not belong to him, they express their ridicule and 
contempt by saying, " Thou art prince, and I am prince, but 
who shall diive the donkeys ?" 

" I am greatly troubled with my women," said the prince, 
" they are always advising me, and they give me no rest, for 
they never agree about anything, so that I have resolved 
never to consult them any more." ^'You are wrong," said 
the caliph, " follow my example, and your plans shall be 
more successful. I uniformly ask their advice and then do 
exactly the contrary." 

The bright glorious moon in the East is the object of 
admiration, and enters into many of their anecdotes and 
comparisons. The crescent is the standard of the prophet. 
IMohammed's greatest traditional miracle was, his bringing 
the moon from the heavens to the mountain of Ararat, and 
thence into the sleeve of his mantle, through which it passed 
speedily upwards again to its path in the sky. The fair face 
and the blooming cheek are compared to the full moon 
travelling in brightness. 

The love for children among the Arabs is a passion. The 
Bedawin beset you at every turn for medicine and charms to 
procure children ; but female children are, I regret to say, 
much less esteemed than males ; nor is this peculiar to the 
Moslems, among whom you may suppose polygamy has 



ARABIC ANECDOTES. 



381 



degraded tlie female sex. The Jews and Christians have the 
same feelings. " Wlaj are you weeping ?" said I to a gold- 
smith in Damascus^ whom I was visiting. " 0," said he, " it is a 
daughter ! it is a daughter ! what shall I do, what shall I do 
I knew an instance where a European lady had twins, and as 
they were hoys the rumour spread through the neighbourhood 
in the city, and the Moslem ladies came in troops, crying, 
"What has God willed ! how glorious ! how fortunate ! now 
your husband will love you (see Gren. xxix. 34), and your 
name shall be great. 0, if I were the mother of two boys ! " 
" But," said the lady of the house, " suppose you were the 
mother of two girls ?" " By the life of the prophet I would 
choke them," was the prompt and unmotherly reply. But 
so it is. "Woman is the slave — she is not the companion 
and helpmate for man; nor can the dignity and proper 
standing of woman be ever realised, nor has it ever been so, 
where the Incarnation is altogether rejected or but partially 
appreciated. That great fact reverses the effects of the first 
transgression and elevates the character of the first fallen by 
bringing in the Serpent-bruiser, thus turning the gate of 
death and all our woes into a channel of life and immortality. 



Eesonet in laudibus 
Cum jucundis plausibus 
Sion cum fidelibus. 

Apparuit, apparuit 
Quern genuit Maria ! 



Tone, Sion, Lobgesang, 
Dass der Freude Feierklang 
Schalle weit die Welt entlang. 

Erscbienen ist, erscbienen ist 
Den uns e-ebar Maria. 



Natus est rex glorise 

De Maria virgine, 

Non virili semine. 

Apparnit, apparuit 
Quern genuit Maria ! 



Kam der Fiirst der Herrlicbkeit, 
Ibn gebar die reine Maid 
Obne Mann, in Ziicbtigkeit. 

Erscbienen ist, erscbienen ist 
Den uns gebar Maria. 



3S2 



ARABIC ANECDOTES. 



Deo patri sit gloria, 
Nataque rictoria, 
Laiis sancto paracleto ! 
Appamit, apparuit 
Quern genuit Maiia !" 



Ruhm und Preis Gott Vater Dir, 
Dir Gott Sobn des Sieges Zier, 
Gott den Geist, dich loben w\t. 
Erscliienen ist, erschienen ist 
Den uns gebar Maria !" 



Many of tlie wise sajrings and proverbs of tlie Arabs are 
taken from tbe proverbs of Solomon. Indeed Solomon is the 
great type and example in tbe whole East and among all 
classes, of a luxurious magnificent piince, whose wisdom 
penetrated the secret chambers of natm'e and subjected to his 
control men, birds, and genii. The Arabs say, ''Evei-^^thing 
forbidden is sweet;" every man has his own cares; we 
are all mortally diseased, and God is the only physician ; a 
mother that neglects her children is like a cat that eats her 
kittens. When the angels come the devils depart, is the 
Scotch proverb, he needs a long spoon that sups kail with 
the de'il ; " ^ " Ahlan wa sahelan," welcome and 
good cheer, is the cead mille faille of the Irish. "Wh.en you 
enter into the country of the one-eyed, put out one of your 
own eyes, resembles "you cannot live in Rome and contend 
with the Pope." Keep a strict eye on your wives, says the 
Turk, for Grod has created them from a crooked rib. The 
best collection of Arabic proverbs is that of Frytag, in three 
volumes. 



Bonn, June 2{}th, 1R53. 



THE TEMPTER. 



383 



JULY. 

I. The Tempter. Mat. iv. 1 — 12. II. Antichristian Ehymes. III. Morning 
Prayer. IV. Hie de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est. V. Super- 
stition and Infidelity. VI. Jewish Objections. VII. On reading the 
Life of Arnold. VIII. Dark Days. IX. Magnitudes and Distances. X. 
Christian Joy. XI. The Mass and the Night Journey. XII. Traditions ; 
Priestly Power. XIII. The Bible— a Divine Song. 



I.— THE TEMPTER.— Mat. iv. 1—12. 

Jesus was tlie Man of tiie Spirit. He was the perfect Man 
of generation, as Adam was the perfect man of creation ; and 
this second perfection, which is fuller, nobler, and stronger 
than the first, was seen in Jesus the Head, and is now seen 
partially and imperfectly in the members of His body, which 
are the fulness of Him that fiUeth all in all. This is the 
perfection of heeding, the perfection which resists, struggles, 
and triumphs ; not the simple perfection of a solitary man in 
a garden of delights, surrounded with an unsullied creation 
in harmony with his own nature, but the perfection of the 
beaten gold which has received the action of the anvil and 
hammer, and has thus gradually been formed into a vessel 
of superlative strength and beauty ; not molten or cast work 
are the saints of God, but heated in the furnace of afflictions, 
and beaten work of the sanctuary are they ; vessels of mercy 
which can contain the new wine of the gospel; trees of 
righteousness which can resist the tempests and storms of 
life and death ; epistles of the Spirit's hand- writing, known 
and read of all men. J esus is the tjrpe, example, and head of 



384 



THE TEMPTER. 



this new creation. He was generated by the Spirit, and they 
are regenerated by the same Spirit ; He was filled with the 
Spirit, and so are they ; all his works, and words, and actions, 
were done in and by the Holy Spirit, and so are theirs. 
Their life is a life hidden with Christ in God. Thus J esus, 
although the Son of God, and consequently possessing the 
natiu-e of Deity, did not in that capacity execute his earthly 
functions ; though the possessor, he condescended to become 
the receiver, that he might be the leader, example, and guide 
of those who have nothing, and must receive all things. 
The Spirit of God filled him and led him into the wilderness, 
to be tempted of the devil, that we might see how a Spirit- 
filled man can resist and triumph over the assaults of the 
tempter. But what are these temptations? — ^for we may 
suppose that Satan put forth all his power and subtlety 
against the Son of God. 1. He first seeks to lead him to 
DOUBT — ''Hthou be the Son of God;'^ that if has destroyed 
the comfort and broken the hearts of thousands. This if was 
the fall of Adam, " Yea hath God said ! " doubt his word. 
So is it still ; we doubt our interest in the work of the 
Redeemer, in the heart of our heavenly Father, and conse- 
quently our sonsliip. This is the first great source of tempta- 
tion, DOUBT, audit has slain its thousands. This is the terrible 
castle of John Bunyan, where Giant Despair lived, who 
seized and tortured so many pilgrims. II. Presu:mptiox. 
" Cast thyself down, for He shall give his angels charge con- 
cerning thee." "Wliat fearful numbers of the human race are 
fatally deluded by this fearful temptation ! How many say, 
" T^^e are like our neighbours ; we are moral, honest, honour- 
able men ; we have no fear of the future ; the conversion of 
the soul to God, the new heart, and the heavenly mind you 
speak of are not necessary. We will Kve and die as we are." 
Thus we presume to the last, and, like old Hobbes the infidel. 



THE TEMPTEH. 



385 



prefer even in death taking a leap in tlie dark, rather than to 
accept the life and immortality of the gospel. III. Then 
having failed in these, Satan changes his attack, and presents 
to the mind of the Redeemer all the kingdoms of the world, 
and the glory of them — ambitiox. This is the third teeming 
fountain of vileness, which has deluged the earth with eyils 
of all kinds. "We will be as Gods and the subtile poison 
being insinuated into our veins, we became regardless of all 
above, or below, or around us ; of the feelings and rights of 
man, as well as the principles and promises of the gospel, in 
our mad career of ambition. How deeply is the love of power 
seated in the human heart ! The principle is not a wrong 
one, but it is wrong to indulge it here. We hope for the 
kingdom ; and the eye strains after the glory and immortality 
which await the just, when the mortal coil shall have been 
laid aside, and the soul fully educated and trained for the 
exercise and office of the eternal kingdom. lY. Finally, 
Satan lays aside the mask of the deceiver, and stands forth 
in his proper person as the god of the fallen world, and the 
liar from the beginning. " All this will I give thee, if thou 
will fall down and worship me," — ^Idolatry, the worship of 
the creature, the rejection of Grod, the adoration of the devil ! 
These are, indeed, the four forms and fountain heads of all 
temptations ; and they were all opened on the Lord of life 
and glory, in the wilderness of Judea. He resisted and 
triumphed by the Word and S]jirit of God, and thereby showed 
us how we too may resist and triumph over the assaidts of 
the enemy. We only observe further, that after the tempta- 
tion, angels came and ministered unto him (Matt. iv. 11). 
As applied to us the principle is important and consolatory — 
every triumph over evil not only strengthens and exercises 
the soldiers of the cross, but is followed by the positive 
blessing and approval of God. Angels stand where the 

c c 



386 



ANTICHRISTIAN RHYMES. 



tempter stood ; tlie darkness yields to the cheerful light, and 
the night of weeping to the freshness and beauty of the 
morning. 



II.— ANTICHRISTIAN EHYMES. 

Who is the Antichrist? What does he do ? Rev. xvi. 19. 

Come, tell me his names, and his attributes too. Rev. xvii. 2, 3. 

He is called Antichrist, for he sits in Christ's place, 1 John ii. 18. 

And seeketh to rule in the kingdom of grace. Rev. xviii. 7. 

Man of sin he is called as the prophecies tell, 2 Thes. ii. 3. 

And son of perdition whose end is in hell. 2 Thes. ii. 3. 
Thelawless; he seeketh to change times and laws, 2Thes.ii.8; Dan.vii.25. 

The beast from the sea with the saints in his jaws; Rev. xiii. 1. 

As a king he announces decretals abroad ; Rev. xiii. 16, 17. 

And sitteth as priest in the Temple of God ; 2 Thes. ii. 4. 

He apes too the prophet, the guide of the blind, 2 Thes. ii. 9. 

The apostle of God for the whole of mankind ; Rev. xiii. 13, 14. 

His wonders and signs like a sorcerer's spell, 2 Thes. ii. 9. 

Entangle his slaves with delusions of hell ; • 2 Thes. ii. 10. 

For the Lord hath deceived them and blinded their eyes, 2 Thes. ii. 11. 

Because they had pleasure in falsehood and lies; 2 Thes. ii. 12, 

Seduced by the spirits of error and death, 2 Tim. iv. 1. 

Hypocritical liars, apostate in faith, 2 Tim. iv. 2. 

Forbidding to marry; refusing the food, 2 Tim. iv. 3. 

Which God hath created both holy and good. 2 Tim. iv. 4. 

Their conscience is seared ; and with fables and lies, 2 Tim. iv. 2. 

They seek to enamour the wondering eyes ; Rev. xvii. 4. 

This kingdom of darkness, like Babel of old, Rev. xvii. 17. 

Holds traffic in purple, and scarlet, and gold ; Rev. xviii. 12. 

Ready money is grace ; and it acts like a spell. Rev. xviii. 7. 

Procures absolution; delivers from hell; Acts viii, 18. 
And when they're in purgatory, opulent souls, Masses for the dead. 
Can bribe their tormentors to lessen the coals ; Masses for the dead. 

For the mother of harlots has always her price, Rev. xvii. 2. 

And the kings of the earth have supported her vice ; Rev. x^ii. 9. 



MORNING PRAYER. 



387 



But lier doom is pronounced in the heavenly decree ; Eev. xvii. 2. 

" She shall fall like a millstone cast into the sea;" Eev. xviii. 21. 

For the nations have di-unk of her sorceries deep, Eev. xviii. 3. 

While she like Delilah has rocked them asleep; Eev. xviii. 9. 

And the blood of the saints and the witnesses slain Eev. xviii, 24. 

Shall not cry against her for ever in vain. Eev. vi. 10. 

Ye apostles and prophets, ye saints great and small, Eev. xviii. 20. 

She is doomed to destruction ; rejoice in her fall ; Eev. xix. 20. 

Eejoice when her glory is laid in the dust ; Eev. xix. 1. 

Eejoice in the Lord, for his judgments are just. Eev, xix. 2. 



Bonn, July 6th, 1853, 



III.— MOENING PEAYEE. 

Wlieii I awake I am still witli Tliee, O gracious, loving 
God, my rock, my tower, and Redeemer, my sMeld, and the 
horn of my salvation ; early in the morning will I lift up 
my voice to the throne of thy grace, and thank thee for thy 
protection and care ; during the darkness of the night thou 
hast spread over me thy wings, and preserved me body and 
soul from all danger. I will daily bless thee, and praise thy 
glorious name for ever. My God ! Thou givest me day after 
day of my life that I may prepare for eternity, and become 
thy special property and dwelling-place. Thou hast created 
me for eternal life, and it is thy holy will and desire that I 
should turn to thee and live. 0 that I may be enabled 
through grace, to spend this day and every day in thy fear 
and favour ; that finally I may obtain eternal Kfe, through 
Jesus Christ, my Redeemer. Every day and week as it 
passes, reminds me of the great day, in which all secrets shall 
be made known ; and I beseech thee, 0 Lord, grant me the 
consolations of thy Spirit when I am weary, strength and 

c c 2 



388 



THE BIRTH-PLACE OF CHRIST. 



deliverance when I am in danger, and victory over all my 
spiritual enemies. 0 Jesus, my mediator and King, dwell 
thou in my heart, that I may feel the presence of a friend in 
all dangers, trials, and afflictions of this life. If God be for 
me, who can be against me ? Grant, 0 most loving Saviour, 
that I may walk this day in thy holy footsteps, and so shall 
I escape the allurements of the world, and the delusions of 
my own heart. Be thou with me in my daily life and calling. 
0 Lord, I look up to thee with full and perfect faith, and I 
will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 

" Segne mich im Schlaf und Wachen, 
Segne meinen Schritt und Tritt, 
Segne mich in alien Sachen, 
Their mir deinen segen mit. 
Gesegnet lass mich sein von dir, 
And nimm den Segen nicht von mir." 

Bonn, July 1th, 1853. 



IV.—" HIC DE VIEGINE MAPJA JESUS CHEISTUS 
NATUS EST." 

Here we are, brother, in the plains of Bethlehem, but the 
angels' songs have long died away, and the excited fancy 
vainly strives to imagine what these strains may have been 
like ! But see, here are some wild-looking Arabs, who in- 
terrupt your meditations by asking for a Bakshish, give them 
some piastres and enjoy undisturbed your reflections on the 
birth-place of Christ. Here the great stream of prophecy 
ended, and to this spot the time- dial of creation pointed 
steadily from the beginning of the world the index-finger of 
Hope. The three ways that led from the ancient paradise 



THE BIHTH-PLACE OF CHRIST. 



389 



and conducted the pilgrims of earth through the raging vault 
of time met here : there was a road hung with many lamps 
to light the footsteps of the earth-worms on their way ; there 
was a road lined with altars, erected at convenient distances, 
on which bleeding, quivering victims lay, to which mortals 
turned with averted eyes and bleeding hearts, wondering what 
these altars might mean ; and there was a third road which 
led the traveller to many thrones, on which the kings of suc- 
cessive ages were sitting, all pointing with their sceptres 
forward to a bright luminous spot, which seemed to terminate 
(but in reality it did not) the mystic rows of lamps, altars, 
and thrones. Onward, ye sons of earth, and forget not the 
radiance of these lamps ; though feeble and dim, it is all ye 
have, and the way is precipitous and dreary ; and when here 
and there you find an altar or a throne, let the lamb and 
the king, though nothing in themselves, answer the purpose 
of Him who made them by directing you onward to the 
luminous point in the distant horizon, where the earth and 
the heavens seem to be coming into contact. Here it was 
arranged that the roads should incline towards each other, and 
the three companies of witnesses for the high purpose of the 
unseen, imapproachable One — the lamp-bearers, the incense- 
bearers, and the sceptre-bearers of Adam's posterity be 
brought to meet together in Bethlehem, at the birth-place of 
the Propliet, Priest, and King, to whom they all pointed as 
the Light, Redeemer, and Ruler of the restored, reinvigorated 
creation. Here we have myrrh, and frankincense, and gold ; 
and the three-fold glories which consecrated and adorned 
many persons, being now united and concentrated in one 
person, the wonder-child of Bethlehem, as in a living fountain 
and sustaining head, they shall break forth on all sides, like 
streams in the desert, or the thousand-fold radiance of the 
sijh in a cloudy sky for the illumination and benediction of 



390 



THE BIRTH-PLACE OF CHRIST. 



the world. All stars point to this star ; all lights to the light 
of life ; all births to the hope-bringing birth of the woman's 
seed, the serpent-bruiser ; all baptists in the wilderness and 
cries in the desert to the fire-baptiser, whose voice is never 
heard in the streets ; all types, symbols, and national monu- 
ments of the Jewish polity and priesthood are united in this 
" Hie natus est," this birth-place of the new creation's hope, 
this Bethlehem, this house of bread, where the living bread 
first came into the region of death. 

" Adam vetiis quod polliiit 
Adam novus hoc abliiit, 
Tumens quod ille dejicit 
Humillimus hie erigit." 

Enter the convent, the Church of the Nativity, and the cave 
where you are told the Kedeemer was born ; see the silver 
lamps shedding their pale radiance through the grotto ; listen 
to the solenm music of an excellent organ ; and, in the midst 
of clouds of frankincense, you can indulge for a little in the 
mystic worship of a solemn kind of sensuousness ; but let the 
thought and the reason break through the crocodile-hide of 
ritualism into the great fact and purpose of an Incarnate God. 
What the sin must be which required such a stupendous 
degradation ; what the law of the universe and the holiness 
of Grod must be, which required such a moral vindication ; 
what the Eternal Mercy must be, which makes its way to us 
through such impediments ; what the wrath of Gfod must be, 
which follows the rejection of grace ! What light this spot 
throws over the administration of God ! Here I begin to 
spell out the letters of the word FATHER, where formerly 
I could find only GOD — love, where formerly I trembled, 
like the ignorant heathen, before the terrors of an unknown 
but all-powerful deity. The Love of God is now a FACT. 



SUPERSTITION AND INFIDELITY. 



391 



** 0 grosse That ! O Wundernaclit 
Von Engeln selbst besungen ! 
Du hast den Heifer uns gebracht, 
Der Siind und Tod bezwungen, 
Und jetzt, zur Herrlichkeit erhoht 
Herrscht auf dem Thron der Majestat 
Um Heil und ewiges Leben 
Den Glaubigen zu geben." 



v.— SUPERSTITION AND INFIDELITY. 

E-eligion is the pure service of tlie reason and tlie heart 
offered up to the Creator in the way he has appointed ; super- 
stition is the perversion or misdirection of the religious facul- 
ties ; infidelity seeks the extinction of them ! Infidelity is 
more dangerous to the individual, superstition to the com- 
munity. Infidelity has slain its thousands, and superstition 
its tens of thousands in the church of Christ. The funda- 
mental nature of man and of the creature in general, 
render the permanence of pure infidelity in masses of people 
an impossibility : for the ideas of memory and hope, of 
meritorious virtue and punished crimes, the premature decay 
of the young, the unwillingness of the aged to die, and the 
feeling of conscious weakness in the bosom of all, must for 
ever lead mankind to the belief of a Supreme Rider, and a 
future state of being, as the proper soil in which the religious 
affections can take root and expand. These ideas and feelings 
are, consequently, found in all nations, ages, and varieties of 
the human family, and can no more be obliterated than the 
instincts of the animal creation ; they form indeed the basis 
on which the necessity for a Divine revelation rests. With- 
out the guiding light of external revelation, how various are 
the forms of folly and fanaticism, stupidity and mental weak- 



392 



SUPERSTITION AND INFIDELITY. 



ness, in which, these nobler instincts of our moral being seek 
to incorporate and strengthen themselves. This is super- 
stition. It is always something positive, and contains the 
quickening germs of great and eternal realities, which, being 
mixed up with the endless varieties of falsehood and fiction, 
lose, in a great measure at least, their sanative character ; 
while yet they impart to the system the splendour and tena- 
city of truth. This makes superstition a more mortal enemy 
to man than infidelity. The few speculative infidels of modern 
and ancient times have never influenced the masses for any 
considerable period of time ; and as negation is the very nature 
of it, it can never wind itself into the habits and customs of 
nations, nor embody itself in the attractive forms of an im- 
posing ritualism. ISTor is France an exception to the rule. 
Infidelity gained the ascendancy for a time, and enacted its 
deeds of darkness on a conspicuous theatre ; but, wearied with 
terror and blood, it speedily returned to the ancient landmarks 
of a positive worship, and thereby demonstrated to the uni- 
verse that godlessness, in the full meaning of the word, can 
never become the permanent character of nations. I do not 
diminish the evils of infidelity, nor wish to throw a veil over 
the horrors and crimes of an infidel revolution ; yet all its 
enormities are less injurious to the interests of mankind, less 
blasphemous and insulting to Grod, than the single super- 
stition connected with OeojroKOQ, as applied to the mother of 
our Lord ; for out of it has arisen the fearful Mariolatry of 
which both the Papal and Oriental Churches are full ; and 
which, forgetting the gift in the channel that brings it, has 
turned the truth of God into a lie, and perpetuated for ages 
a most revolting idolatry in the very bosom of Christendom 
itself. The dangers arising from Paine are nothing to this. 
'No, the torrent of infidelity, when it does gain the ascend- 
ancy, sweeps over the world like a tempest, terrible indeed 



JEWISH OBJECTIONS. 



393 



and desolating in its course ; but, like the linrricane, it soon 
subsides into the sunshine of former repose ; while, on the 
other hand, superstition, like the power and principle of vege- 
tation, goes on gathering fresh strength daily, and multiplying 
itself, with startling rapidity, until, being deeply rooted in 
the soil, like a giant oak, it holds up its massive branches in 
defiance of tempests and storms. 



VI.— JEWISH OBJECTIONS. 

One of the greatest objections lately brought against 
Christianity by the Jews is the Incarnation, and on this sub- 
ject they never fail to utter the most horrible blasphemies 
against the Blessed Yirgin. Yet does not the first promise — 
''the seed of the woman'' — contain this very mystery? 
The expression certainly means more than the simple inti- 
mation — " The serpent-bruiser shall be a man." It means, 
" He shall be a man miraculously born ; born of the wo- 
man's seed alone, and thus the fulfilment not only elevates 
the race, of which he became one, but the ivoman, by whom 
sin was first introduced into the world. The fact brings joy 
and redemption to the whole fallen family, the mode elevates 
the first fallen to primaeval place and dignity. And do not 
Is. vii. 14, and ix. 6, plainly teach that the great Deliverer 
was to be the son of a Yirgin? Yet the Jew can find 
excuses for his unbelief, notwithstanding these texts. Indeed, 
in Germany, criticism is brought to such perfection, that 
by means of a little pounding and shaking in the exegetical 
crucible, any passage can be moulded to the will of the 
critic. The Jews were the first spiritualisers of Scripture. 
They found this principle necessary, in order to exterminate 
from the Bible the great idea of a sufiering dying Messiah. 



394 



DR. Arnold's death. 



They have been, and are, imitated by the Christians, who, 
by the same system of what they term spiritualism, reduce 
to silence the passages which announce his coming to reign ; 
and the neologists, carrying out the same principles, get rid 
of hoth advents, and all that is personal and miraculous in 
the character of Christ. The best way of meeting the Jews 
who take offence at the incarnation and godhead of Christ, 
is to lead them gradually to the purpose of Jehovah, and the 
inexpressible goodness and mercy seen in these doctrines. 
The ruins of the fall are reversed, the dignity and import- 
ance of the human family asserted, the awful power, love, 
and mercy of Jehovah manifested to the universe in a way 
worthy of him by the stupendous humiliation of his Son. 
This lar^e view of the character of God has more weight 
with the Jews than the criticism of particular texts. The 
statement of Divine love is more attractive than criticism. 



VII.— DR. ARNOLD'S DEATH. 

I have been refreshing my mind, my memory, and my 
heart, during the burning heat of this day, by reading, for 
the second time, the life of that great good man. Many 
thoughts arise in the mind that seeks to form a connected 
image or picture of the man, but they all contribute to our 
perception of the nobility, beauty, and goodness of his 
character. He had the moral firmness of an ancient Roman, 
yet how much of the most tender feeling, especially towards 
the close of his life, was blended with it ? "We admire in 
our Master the wonderful combination of excellencies which 
made him so feared and loved; intercourse never caused 
familiarity in the disciples, and even when leaning on His 
bosom, they were afraid to ask Him questions. It was the 



DR. Arnold's death. 



395 



union of power and love ; and do we not see mucli of this 
rare combination in the life and character of Arnold? I 
admire his truthfulness, viz., his love of truth, which, as he 
himself expresses it, can never be separated from goodness 
till God leaves the universe. There are no shams in him ; 
he is a full-grown man, with mighty powers, which he will 
exercise, and has a noble purpose, which he steadily follows. 
Gilding, drapery, human authority, have little attraction for 
him, for he will look into the depth of things, and see the 
body of truth in its clearness. His labours, his activity, 
and his learning, are, indeed, immense, and remind us of 
the works of the Reformers ; but what is still more admi- 
rable is, the honest, noble, manly piety which, without osten- 
tation, meets you in every act, but very rarely in his words. 
In this respect, as well as many others, he is not unlike Dr. 
Chalmers ; they were both Reformers, they were both men of 
very liberal politics ; if Chalmers was the first preacher, 
Arnold was the first teacher in the world. The sentiments 
of both were not a little modified by experience and time ; 
they both influenced great numbers of influential educated 
men, and they both died suddenly and unexpectedly. Where 
and what are they now ? Have they met since they died ? 
They are before the throne of God and the Lamb, and they 
are like him whom they loved, for they see him as he is. 
The lesson that we learn from the life of Arnold is of the 
deepest, holiest kind. "We feel ourselves in company with 
a noble character, whose influence over us is that of good- 
ness, beauty, and truth. How unnatural is death ! It arrests, 
often in the very vigour of life, those who seem most earnest 
to benefit mankind, and promote the Divine glory. How 
close the union between soul and body ! They were evidently 
made for one another, yet sin must separate them ; and then 
the family circle, with all its endearments, must' be broken 



396 



DARK DAYS. 



up, and all whicli the fond heart seems to cherish most on 
the earth, must end only in the grave. If I did not believe 
there was another world, where the great and the good shall 
meet and flouiish immortally, I should doubt that there was 
a holy Grod in heaven, or a moral Grovernor on the earth ; I 
should deem life no blessing and death no curse. The cross 
sets all doubts at rest. In the person of the Divine Ee- 
deemer the knots and entanglements in the web of Provi- 
dence find their resolution ; and over sin and death, and the 
moral government of the world, as well as the hopes of man 
and the character of Grod, the great atonement sheds a steady 
and satisfactory light. Be of good cheer, ye that toil and 
labour for man and God. The Restorer comes quickly, and 
the everlasting union of the saints with the Saviour shall 
be completed ; 2 Thes. ii. 1 (sTricrui^aywyr?) ; 1 Thes. iv. 17. 
Death shall no more separate, and sin shall no longer mar 
the prosperity of the children of God. We shall meet 
again — from all kindreds and tongues and peoples and na- 
tions, the companies of the redeemed, the palm-bearing 
victors, who loved not their life unto the death, the holy 
apostles and prophets, and the glorious army of the martyrs 
— we shall meet above. We, the whole church of the 
living God, ^vith all its varieties and diversities, shall meet 
each other in the upper sanctuary, amongst the songs and 
congratulations of the heavenly hosts. Till then. Dr. Ar- 
nold, farewell. We shall meet again at Philippi. 

Bonn, July 12th, 1853. 



VIII.— DAEK DAYS.— Job xxix. 2—4; Is. lix. 9. 

Those only that are accustomed to the light can know the 
misery of darkness. The beams of the Sun of Righteous- 



DARK DAYS. 



397 



ness illuminate tlie paths of the children of Grod, and there 
is to them no darkness like the interception of his radiance. 
Where hardness of heart, a blimted conscience, coldness in 
prayer, withered affections, fill the mind in which formerly 
the peace of God and the love of Christ reigned, the change 
is, indeed, fearful, and the doubts and anxieties of the trem- 
bling spirit very di^eadful. Yet such is often the case with 
earnest thinking Christians ; and I have known some re- 
maining under clouds and darkness for years. How fearful 
the agony of a mind diseased ; how inveterate the roots of 
sin in us ; how small the progress which truth is making in 
oui'selves and in the world; what multitudes live and die 
without kno^^ng or caring for the remedy pro^T^ded for them 
in the gospel ; what becomes of the heathen myriads that 
pass away like a dream, without thought or hope of the 
future ? Why is not the gospel carried into all countries, 
and received universally where it is known ? Such thoughts 
oppress the faculties, and incarcerate thousands in the dun- 
geon of doubt or despair ; nor are we able by any effort of 
reason all at once to break open the prison doors. Better, 
far, to think thus, my brother. Could we comprehend the 
ways of Jehovah, he would cease to be the great illimitable 
God that he is ; for His glory is seen superlatively in this, 
that the wide creation shall be for ever discovering more of 
His excellencies, for ever approximating Him, and yet ever 
seeing infinite distances before them ; himself the eternal 
fountain to satisfy cui'iosity, and at the same time awaken 
fresh hopes ; perfectly comprehensible, yet still the imkno^vn 
God — filling, sustaining, blessing all. Unseen, yet all- 
seeing ; unfelt, yet all-pervading ; the living One before 
whom the creation and the whole universe are as nothino-. 

o 

It is natural thou shouldst Iviiow but little of such a God. 
If you make a god like ourselves, you may comprehend him 



398 



MAGNITUDES AND DISTANCES. 



fully. Of the true God you can just know enougli to make 
you believe, adore, and love him. Say, He has not forgotten 
me, he has given me all things richly to enjoy ; my life, my 
happiness, my all is from him. He gave his Son to die for 
me, that I, a poor sinful mortal, might believe, and live with 
him in glory for ever. Begone, ye torturing doubts ; away, 
ye guilty fears ; henceforth my confidence shall be in Him, 
and he will turn my darkness into light, and my mourning 
into songs of joy. 



IX.— MAGNITUDES AND DISTANCES. 

The earth recedes and all its concerns become apparently 
insignificant as we approach nearer and nearer to Grod. 
What are councils, parliaments, kingdoms, and empires in 
the presence of the infinite all- comprehending Grod ? Dis- 
tance equalises and diminishes all things, and hence the 
importance of the believer's position " In Christ/' which 
places him far above this fleeting world, and from the heights 
of eternity enables him to look domi on the concerns of 
time. " In Christ " is our noble position ; let us ever hold 
it fast — born mth Him, bearing the cross with Him, cruci- 
fied with Him, buried with Him by baptism into the grave 
of the flesh, risen with Him, yea, seated with Him in the 
heavenly places ; the band which binds us to Him is stronger 
than sin, Satan, and death, and the life which He imparts is 
eternal. Here now you see our vantage-ground in the fierce 
warfare against our spiritual enemies ; the world is conquered, 
crucified, the powers and motions of the flesh prostrated, 
the temptations of the devil met and resisted in the person 
of our Living Head, and by faith we enter into the battle- 
field, where the enemy is already slain. Members of the 



CHRISTIAN JOY. 



399 



conqueror at the Creator's right hand, we share His strength 
and partake of his victories. Others have laboured, and we 
have entered into their labours. Consider yourself in Hiin, 
and looking down from the heavenly throne, and see how 
little the whole world will appear. There are two exceptions 
to this rule — Sin and Grace; these do not diminish, but 
increase as you approach the presence of the holy One ; 
sin becomes exceeding sinful when seen in the light of His 
holiness, and the sea of mercy deepens and widens as you 
come near the eternal centre of the boundless universe. 0, 
how the soul longs for God — for the living Grod ; longs to 
gaze on the beauty, majesty, and infinite fulness of the Lord 
J esus Christ ! 

"Ich nahe dir mit tiefem Selmen, 
Mit Kindeslieb und freudigem Vertraim. 
Ich will auf dich, mein Stab, micli lehnen, 
Lass bald dein Vaterangesicht micli scbaun. 
la, wolin in mir ! ein rreudeubimmel ist, 
Wo du, mein Gott, der Seele nalie bist." 

With longing great my soul approaches Thee, 
In joyful confidence and childlike love ; 
On thee, my staff, I lean until I see 
Thy boundless glories in the courts above. 
Yes, dwell in me ! for there is heavenly joy 
Where'er the soul doth feel thy presence nigh. 

Bonn, July I8th, 1853. 



X.— CHEISTIAN JOY. 

Should, then, the Christian be joyful ? Why not ? He 
of all men has, in my opinion, the best reason to be joyful. 
He is the member of a society which shall survive the ruins 



400 



CHRISTIAN JOY. 



of all the kingdoms and empires of tlie world ; L.e is engaged 
in a work which, is more noble and glorious than any other, 
even the work which a kind and beneficent Father has 
given him to do, and in the doing of which he finds many 
Divine succours and consolations. With him the great 
question of the future is settled, and the life and immor- 
tality of the gospel irradiate and tranquillise his mind. He 
knows what he is, and where he is going. He sees and feels 
in himself and in everything a present Grod, and when doubts 
and darkness arise, they are dispelled by the hopes of a 
glorious future. He has one great object and aim upon the 
earth, towards which his efforts are directed, and the great- 
ness of the end cheers and sustains him through the whole 
course of life. One glorious person attracts and concentrates 
his affections, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Gfod-Man, in whom 
he finds all the attributes that can elevate and expand the 
human heart. His home is the house of Grod, his companions 
saints and holj angels, the rock he rests on is the promise of 
the unchangeable Grod, his covering and defence in the day 
of anger is the robe of Christ's righteousness. His enemies 
are already conquered, and faith makes him enter into the 
fruits of the Savioui^'s victories. Sin, death, Satan, and the 
grave are no longer irresistible, no longer the triumphant 
enslavers of the human race ; their j)Ower is weakened if not 
entirely destroyed in the members as it is in the head ; and 
the enthroned victor at the right hand of Grod, is the pledge 
and assurance of their final triumph. Their winter is never 
long, and their darkest days have many rainbow streaks. 
Their night of weeping, when it comes, is not Egyptian 
darkness, but spangled with a thousand bright stars of hope. 
He sees love, peace, and joy everywhere, for he finds every- 
where his Father and his God ; no event without its cause, 
no trial without its end, no bitter cross without the " need- 



THE MliSS AND THE NIGHT JOURNEY. 401 

be" on our part, that we may be made partakers of His 
holiness, and the assiTrance on His that He does not willingly 
(Heb. from the heart) afflict or grieve the children of men. 
His Father's eye sees him, and his ears are ever open to his 
cries. Is not this enough to make you joyful ? What do you 
want more ? 

" Why do doubts and fears arise ? 
See the bleeding sacrifice ! 
Sin and death accuse in vain 
Since the Lamb of God was slain. 

Justice now and pardon meet 
jRound the sinner's mercy-seat ; 
And we see our Father's face 
Smiling from the throne of grace. 

Stars of mercy pierce the gloom, 
Life arises from the tomb, 
Heaven is open, grace is free, 
Grace for sinners — gi-ace for thee ! " 

Bonn, July 20th, 1853. 



XL— THE MASS AND THE NIGHT JOUKNEY. 

It is well known that Mohammed left the bed where he 
was sleeping, mounted Albarack, the steed of the prophets 
(they all rode it in succession since Adam), and rode to the 
Rook of Jerusalem; from thence he ascended the ladder of 
the heavens under the guidance of Gabriel ; he knocked at 
the doors of the seven heavens successively, and was cordially 
welcomed by the angelic multitudes, whose size, glories, and 
number are known only to Grod. He held special conversa- 
tions with the principal inhabitants, and joined with the 

D D 



402 THE MASS AND THE NIGHT JOURNEY. 

heavenly multitudes in the worship of the Creator. He 
passed onwards and upwards through thousands of thou- 
sands of Veils, the distance of one Yeil to another being 
990,000 years' journey, until he came within a bow-shot of 
the eternal throne, which was sustained and encompassed by 
tremendous serpents, which, had God only willed it, could 
easily have swallowed the heavens and the earth at a mouth- 
ful. He now received his commission, his robe of honour, 
and full knowledge of the doctrines of the Koran. He 
passed also through the infinite regions of hell, and saw all 
its inhabitants (the first he saw and the most numerous 
were women), its palaces of fire, its infinite wastes, its all- 
devouring serpents, its avenging devils, who, with scourges 
of fire, were tormenting the apostates as they hrnig suspended 
by the tongues from hooks of flame. All this he saw, and 
thousands of wonders still greater than these, and yet re- 
turned to his bed before the sheets had become cold. This 
is the famous night Journey, ^^'ext day he related the story 
to the inhabitants of Mecca, but they laughed at him, and 
required him to give a description of some place on earth, that 
they might have the means of testing his accuracy. This 
was very puzzling ; however, his temporal affairs after the 
battle of Beder took a favourable turn, and the subdued 
and trembling citizens readily admitted the night journey of 
the victorious prophet ! This was the making of Mohammed ; 
he who admitted this could not possibly stagger at anything 
else ; the great barrier of unbelief was surmounted, and the 
triumphant impostor could lead his fanatical disciples as he 
pleased. The mass is to the Papacy what the night journey 
is to the Islam. It is such a combination of fable, fiction, 
and falsehood, and at the same time so opposed to the Scrip- 
ture and human reason, that the person who admits it 
must for ever after prostrate reason. Scripture, and the 



THE MASS AND THE NIGHT JOURNEY. 403 

deductions of consciousness to the guidance of the priest. 
He mumbles, and his incantations do not produce temples 
and gardens, palaces and marble fountains, like the magicians 
of the East, but wonders still more astonishing. His potent 
spell affects the Creator of the universe, and we stand aghast 
before the God-creating magic of a Roman priest. Solomon 
corked up the genii in bottles, and threw them into the sea, 
and his potent seal restrained them ; but the priest kills and 
creates at his pleasure the immortal, and shuts up the illimit- 
able Grod in a pix. Ovid's metamorphoses are nothing to his, 
and here, as in many other things. Pagan Rome must yield 
the palm to Rome Papal. Reason, Scripture, and the common 
understanding of mankind must yield to the word of the 
Pontifex Maximus, who is clothed with such potent authority. 
The stupid trembling multitude must only worship and 
adore before the consuming powers of such a terrible tre- 
mendous priesthood, and the noble reasonable service of the 
gospel is turned into the mockery and mummery of creature- 
worship ; the Broaden- god is lifted up, and the stolid multi- 
tudes shout like the ancient heathens, by the space of two 
hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians ; " the bells are 
ringing, the incense ascending, the priests' garments glitter- 
ing in purple and gold, the people are standing afar off, the 
pictures on the walls are moving by the force of the in- 
toxicating superstition, the images of the saints are smiling 
their best over the prostrate multitudes, and in the midst 
of the most imposing solemnities, the cannibal doctrine of 
transubstantiation is consummated, and new honours and 
glories surround the priesthood, in whom and for whom the 
doctrine was invented. It is the centre of their system. 
Round this, as its centre, superstition lives, and moves, and 
has its being ; hence their priests, their altars, and their 
sacrifices ; hence their bleeding wafers, their winking images, 

D D 2 



404 TRADITIOXS ; PRIESTLY POWER. 

their lies in liypocris}", tlieir lying miracles, their wafer- 
worship, their doctrines of devils, which, for depth, cunning, 
and absurdity, defy all the religions of antiquity. This is 
the great idol around which the modern cannibals dance, and 
rather than yield to which, our ancestors jo^^fully laid down 
their lives at the stake. Throw in a few grains of incense 
on the altar of Jupiter as you pass ; ]N^o I said the Christian 
martjTS, in the days of Pagan Rome, and they were thrown 
to the wild beasts. Bow before the Host as it passes, said 
the Papist, and your tortures shall instantly cease ; 'No I 
said the Christian martyrs, we die rather than worship your 
idol ; and hence the glorious army of the martp's, who loved 
not their lives unto the death. This army consists of two bands 
— those who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, viz., 
those who resisted Paganism, and those who would not 
worship the Beast, viz., those who resisted the Papacy 
(Bev. XX. 4). On the whole, indeed, the Papacy has been 
more cruel and bloodthirsty than the Pagan Empire ; and if 
the blood which the mother of harlots has shed around the 
altar of her Mass could be gathered together, I am persuaded 
it would exceed the dimensions of the sea of Galilee. Those 
who study the two systems should study the night journey 
and the Mass, as the central points and symbols of the re- 
ligions — the first is an imposture, and the system that 
surrounds it is an imposture ; the second, viz., the Mass, is 
apostacy, and the system that surrounds it is an apostacy, 
a-ocj-aaia (2 Thes. ii. 3). 



XII.— TEADITIOXS ; PEIESTLY POWEH. 

What are the sources of Divine revelation? I asked a 
Moslem this question one day, in Damascus, and his answer 



traditions; priestly power. 



405 



was clear and distinct, and without hesitation — The Word 
of God, and the word of the prophet.'* These are the two 
fountains, but they are very different in depth and clearness. 
The Koran is the inimitable, eternal, uncreated transcript of 
the Divine mind, brought by an angel from the heavenly 
throne. There is nothing like it, nothing equal to it, for 
truth, beauty, and sublimity in heaven or in earth ; nothing 
for a moment to be put in the same balance with it. But 
the words of the prophet are true words, and form the basis 
of the traditions necessary for the right understanding of the 
Koran. In practice, however, the commentary rules the text, 
and the Moslem traditions have nullified or altered many of 
the precepts of the Koran. So is it throughout the entire 
world of imposture and superstition. Ask the Greek Church 
what are the sources of inspiration ? Answer, The Word of 
God and tradition. Ask the Papist, and he answers, " The 
Word of God and tradition." Ask the Jew, and he, too, has 
his written and oral law. Thus, it appears, that tradition 
is the most conspicuous article in the encyclopaedia of super- 
stition, in whatever language and by whatever fanaticism it 
may have been written. In the midst of this confusion, the 
British nation announces and will defend the sublime asser- 
tion of one of her noblest sons : " The Bible, the Bible is the 
religion of Protestants." This lays the axe at the root of 
priestcraft and superstition at once ; it brings man into the 
atmosphere of Divine love, and heaves overboard the rubbish 
of ages. The main value of tradition, in the minds of many, 
is the support which it gives, or seems to give, to Church- 
systems, and the power and importance of a human priest- 
hood. As a rule, it is diflB.cult ; none but the most learned 
can apply it, and, consequently, the people must be left 
entirely in the hands of the priests. Thus, the love of power, 
in one word, the ambition of the clergy, has generated the 



403 



THE BIBLE A DIVINE SOKG. 



same system in tlie East and in the West — among Christians, 
Heathens, Mohammedans, and Jews. "The Bible is the 
religion of Protestants." 

Bonn, July 2bt7i, 1853. 



XIII.— THE BIBLE— A DIVINE SONG. 

Holy Bible, word of truth , 
Age's solace ; guide in youth ; 
Living stream for ever sweet ; 
Lamp to guide my wandering feet ; 
In thy sacred page I view 
Heights and depths for ever new; 
Boundless mercy from above, 
Ocean-depths of Jesus' love ; 
Thou dost give the weary rest, 
Leaning on the Saviour's breast. 
How I love thee ! Book divine ! 
Praising God that thou art mine. 



MY GOD. 



407 



AUGUST. 

I. My God. II. *0 KOfTj^iog vfiag ^t(T£t. HI. German Students; Parting 
Scene. IV. Jewish Objections. V. q")'^^—-)^, tlie Prince of Peace. VI. 
fjiia iroifiyri, One Flock. VII. Calvary. VIII. The Meeting of Friends. 
IX. Polygamy in the East. X. The Female Character in the East. XI. 
Eeligious and Political Changes in the East; Hopes. XII. Exegesis ; or, 
the Ass eating Thistles. XIII. Love-tokens. XIV. Longing after God. 
XV. A letter to Pope Pius IX ; the Holy Scriptures. XVI. Germany ; 
Peculiarities ; Various Particulars. 



I.— MY GOD. 

My weak faitli staggers at the immensity of the sublime 
creed contained in the two words, My God ! " I know that I 
am thine ; thou hast made me ; created me anew in Christ 
Jesus, to thine own honour and glory ; thy watchful providence 
has fed, sustained, and blessed me in a thousand ways ; I want 
for nothing ; I have all and abound ; in darkness thou hast 
been my light, in dangers an ever-present helper ; in strange 
lands thou hast raised me up friends, and here this day I set 
up my "Ebenezer;" hitherto hath the Lord helped me. 
I am, indeed, thine, 0 my Lord and Redeemer, my King and 
my God, for the double cords of nature and of grace bind me 
to thee, but, 0 Lord my God, how dare I say that " Thou art 
mine?*' The heaven of heavens cannot contain thee ; the 
sun, moon, and stars are but the shadows of thy glory ; and 
» the whole created universe is as nothing when compared 
with thy immensity. Thou fiUest, sustainest, and blessest 
all things, and yet, 0 holy Lord God, thou art neither seen, 



408 



" THE WORLD HATETH YOU.'* 



nor heard, nor felt by the children of men. May a poor 
weak trembling sinner, whose only hope is in the cross, say to 
thee, " Thou art my God?" Art thou indeed my portion, so 
that I can say, " Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there 
is none upon earth whom I desire besides thee?" Hast thou 
made thyself specially mine, by coming near to my soul 
with thy eternal mercy in Christ Jesus, so that new and 
strong relations have been formed between us ? Does my 
receiving gifts make the giver also mine ? 0 Lord, it is all 
from thee ! All thine own sweet, holy, boundless love, which 
condescends to open its ocean-fulness to poor thirsty sinners. 
The new covenant is but the channel of thy goodness to the 
children of men, an-d we may plead that covenant when we 
draw near to thee. Art thou then mine by ancient covenant? 
O that I could put all my confidence in thee, so that " My 
God" should be not a mere expression, but a deep reality of the 
soul ; a living fountain out of which sweet communion, holy 
love, and heavenly prayer might flow. 

" My God," for thou hast chosen me ; 
" My God," for T have chosen Thee ; 
The needy sinner, I am thine ; 
The God of mercy, Thou art mine. 

Bonn, August 4,tJi, 1853. 



II. — *0 k6(tixoq hjxoLQ fU(7e~i. — John xv. 18. 

" The tcorlcl liateth you ! " Ye have left its ranks and 
become deserters, and so its virulence and hatred are excited 
against you. This hatred is seen in the family, in the village, 
in the church, and in the nations. It makes itself manifest 
morally, physically, and historically in the difierent ages of 



" THE WORLD HATETH YOU." 



409 



the world. The two kingdoms existed from the beginning of 
the world, and the two streams of pure and of muddy waters 
have flowed over our world since the streams of paradise were 
corrupted at the Fall. The Cains and the Abels, the Sauls 
and the Davids, the Esaus and the Jacobs, the seed of the 
serpent and the woman's seed, the children of darkness and 
the children of light, have waged a long and terrible warfare, 
nor will the conflict cease until the enemy and everything 
that ofiends is banished from the earth, and the kingdoms of 
this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His 
Christ. The ways, the weapons, and the principles of these 
warriors are totally diflerent, and their hatred is mortal. 
There can be no yielding, at least there should be none, on our 
part, till, like our heavenly Master, we conquer in our dying, 
and slay by being slain. 

" A pilgrim tlirongh this lonely woiid 
The blessed Saviour j'lassed, 
A mourner all his life was he, 
A dying lamb at last." 

Remember, too, that while resisting to the death all the 
enemies of your soul and the Son of God, you are to love 
their souls notwithstanding, and like Stephen, spend your 
last breath in praying for them. Reject and oppose their 
principles, but pray for their persons. Say: Lord, have 
mercy on the infidel ; Lord, destroy infidelity ; — Lord, have 
mercy on the pope ; Lord, destroy the papacy ; — have mercy, 
O Lord, on the Jews, and the Moslems, and the Heathen, 
yet take vengeance on their iuA^entions. They hate you and 
your ways, do you love them and hate their ways. Let the 
same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who never 
returned railing for railing, but in life and in death answered 
all the accusations and blasphemies of the people with addi- 



410 GERMAN students; PARTING SCENE. 

tional demonstrations of his love. The world hateth you ! " 
Be it so ; it hates your Head and your King also ; it sees no 
beauty in your beloved, no honour in your lowliness, no glory 
in your crown. Its blessing is time, its curse and terror 
eternity ; it hears not the music of the voice that charms you, 
and it cannot see the star of your immortal hopes. It hates 
what ye love, loves what ye hate, and will go its own way to 
the end, in spite of all that goodness and love may do to 
avert its doom. Hatred ought not to make you sad, as the 
world's frown is the sure token that you delight no longer in 
its smiles. Do you not know that the world, the whole 
world lieth kv rw novrjpif in the wicked one ? His arms are 
around it as the arms of the father are around the returning 
prodigal. He rules it, guides its pleasures, arranges its con- 
ditions, and from Him it must expect its reward. This is 
indeed no comfortable prospect ; lying in the wicked one. 
Hear me ! I would not share your bed for something ! I 
would much rather die by your hands than by your side ! I 
would prefer the bitter cross, or the lonely grave for my bed, 
rather than your gorgeous couch or brilliant throne rw 
TTOvrjpuj ! Your waking may be terrible, if that old serpent, 
when you think yourselves most at ease, only begins to 
straiten his encircling folds ! How the serpent's eye will 
gloat over the agonies of its victims ! It is fearful to think 
upon. Lord, have mercy upon us, and deliver us from the 
snares of the devil. 



III.— GERMAN STUDENTS; PARTING SCENE. 

Come now and let us visit the students. The session is now 
ending, the students are taking their farewells of one another, 
and it may add to our knowledge of national customs to 



GEHMAN students; PARTING SCENE. 411 

observe the solemnities of separation. The time is night, 
the place a large hall in the shooting gallery, and the different 
corps of the fighting students have arranged themselves in 
regular order around long tables in the hall. An enormous 
barrel of beer is set upon the table, which is very soon 
emptied, for the students are fond of this favourite bever- 
age. Healths are now copiously drank, the quarrels of 
the session are made up, and a spirit of brotherliness heals 
the deep wounds still visible on many faces. These scars are 
deemed honourable, and the deeper and more prominent the 
better. The fine brass band is playing nobly, and the national 
notes of German music ascend into the dark vault of night ; 
but the students are in earnest, and the human voice meets and 
conquers all instruments. Well, there is to be sure something 
attractive and overpowering in that German music. But see, 
they rise each in his place, with his sword by his side ; at the 
ends of each row, two students stand forth with crossed and 
naked swords ; at this moment the caps are elevated upon 
the points of the swords, and the two appointed students at 
the ends of the rows pass along, running their swords through 
each cap to the very hilt, so that each sword has at least 
twenty caps strung upon it. This is the badge of honour 
which the students prize so much, and these transfixed caps 
are venerated and preserved with the greatest care. The 
caps are now returned, the swords are again crossed, the 
glasses filled to the brim, and in the midst of a sort of awful 
military solemnity, they swear to " live and to die for their 
country. This is their last meeting of the session. It is the 
German student's farewell. Observe here, as in everything 
else, the military spirit which pervades the population in 
Prussia. The government itself, though paternal and liberal, 
is stern and military ; the whole male population, from the 
peasant to the prince, must serve at least two years, and these 



412 JEWISH OBJECTIONS AND STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 



the best of their life, in the armies of the state, so that every 
man in the country capable of bearing arms is trained to nse 
them. The national patriotic songs of the people in favour 
of freedom and fatherland, are all military and spirit-stirring, 
and the spirit of fighting and personal courage is kept up and 
nourished immensely by the universities, notwithstanding 
many private by-laws against it. A few days ago, there 
came a deputation of famous fighters from Heidelberg, and 
gave a general challenge to the students of Bonn. The 
challenge was of course accepted, and so they went out to the 
royal forests in the neighbourhood and fought it out. These 
duels are rarely fatal; pistols are never used; the neck is 
securely bandaged, and they are only allowed to cut, not to 
thrust with the sword; the surgeon is on the spot with his 
instruments to bind up the wounds, and when they are 
sufficiently exhausted, and cut up on the head and face, 
they postpone the decision to some future time. 



IV.— JEWISH OBJECTIONS AND STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 

Jew. — One of the greatest difficulties in my way is the 
present state of the Gentile nations. War sounds like thun- 
der through the world, the nations are trained to arms, and 
in the first rank of these warlike nations are, undoubtedly, 
the Christian. How do6s this agree with the character of 
the Messiah ? Do not the Jewish Scriptures surround the 
Deliverer with the glories of a peaceful and universal king- 
dom, to which all nations shall be subject, and which itself 
shall last for ever ? The central point of this glorious 
empire is to be the Jewish nation, out of which the seeds of 
life are to be scattered, and the streams of living water 



JEWISH OBJECTIONS AND STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 



413 



poured over the world. The Jews are his brethren, and his 
very name is 01^1^°"):^; Prince of peace (Is. ix. 6), which 
surely can never with propriety be applied to the head and 
ruler of the present Christian nations. If that be, indeed, 
the name of Jesus of Nazareth, it is certainly a misnomer, 
for he has not succeeded in establishing peace, and his fol- 
lowers are warlike and military nations. 

Answer. — Jesus of I^azareth is truly □')'7I^'"1ti^, the Prince 
of peace, and that in every conceivable sense of the term. 
He is a prince, for he was born of the royal line of David, 
and was, and is still, the true literal lineal heir of the 
Jewish throne. If the Jews did not receive him they added 
rebellion to their other national crimes. They should have 
welcomed him as their king and long-promised deliverer, 
and for not doing so they are cursed with the fearfidlest 
maledictions of God and man, being banished from their 
country, and scattered to the ends of the earth. His life 
was a life of peace ; in his own person he was the Prince of 
peace, and though you make this objection against him, yet 
you inconsistently reject his claims, because he was not a 
warrior and conqueror, subduing the nations with the sword 
of flesh, and glorifying the Jews with a universal empire. 
Must the Prince of peace attain his dominion through fields 
of slaughter and seas of human blood? Is not a prince 
who establishes a moral kingdom — a kingdom of faith and 
love over the hearts of men — more truly a prince of peace 
than ^Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, or Napoleon Bonaparte? 
Nor are the wars of Christians any valid objection to his 
being truly the Prince of peace ; their sins and inconsis- 
tencies do not alter the nature and character of his royal 
name and title. I might as well argue against the unity of 
Jehovah because the Jews worshipped idols ; or against the 
mercy of the God of Israel, because Israel is cruel and vin- 



414 JEWISH OBJECTIONS AND STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 

dictive ; or against his promises, because the Jews are scat- 
tered through the world. We may now drop this objection, 
I think. Your sins do not alter the character of Jehovah, 
and Jesus Christ is the Prince of peace, notwithstanding the 
wars of the Christian nations. But what do you say to his 
death ? Do you not see a peaceful glory surroimding that 
great event, nobler in the eye of right reason than all the 
glare and splendour of worldly pomp ? Suppose, for a mo- 
ment, that we are ]'ight on this question — suppose that dying 
Prince is the promised Messiah ; is the Son born, the child 
given, the mighty God, and the everlasting Father of whom 
Isaiah speaks (ix. 5). He dies as the slaughtered Lamb 
of the prophecies (Is. liii.), and bears the sins of the people. 
He rises from the dead as the victorious Deliverer, whom 
the chains of death could not bind, and visibly from Mount 
Olivet ascends to the right hand of God, from whence he 
immediately sends down the Quickener to abide with us 
and comfort us for ever. Is not this peaceful ? Is it not 
like the God of peace, and mercy, and love ? Surely there 
is no difficulty here to keep you from believing on the Prince 
of peace. His name is peace ; his gospel is the gospel of 
peace ; his kingdom a kingdom of righteousness, and peace, 
and joy in the Holy Ghost ; the angel-song over his birth- 
place was glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace. 
He came and preached peace to them that were near, and 
to them that were far off ; and his last solemn word, as he 
left our world for a time, was the bequeathment of peace. 
0, my brother, he gives the soul peace. He opens the foun- 
tains which sin had sealed, and lets the soul expand in the 
bosom and sunshine of eternal love. His voice breaks our 
chains, and his looks break our hearts, and, free and broken- 
hearted, we become the willing bondmen of his grace. 



ONE FLOCK. 



415 



v.— Dl^t^f— Iti;— THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 

Sar Shalom ! the prophets name thee : 
Branch and root of Jesse's stem ; 

Sar Shalom ! thy saints proclaim thee; 
Thine the peaceful diadem. 

Sar Shalom ! the angels sing thee 
Songs of peace in Bethlehem ; 

Sar Shalom ! our hearts we bring thee, 
Thou hast dearly purchased them. 

Sar Shalom ! thy ransomed gi'eet thee ; 

Thou art theirs; who shall condemn ? 
Sar Shalom ! they long to meet thee 

In thine own Jerusalem. 

Sar Shalom ! thy saints are weary, 
Longing for the midnight cry : 

Sar Shalom ! the night is dreary ; 
Is the glorious morning nigh ? 



VI.— Mm TTolfivr], ONE FLOCK.— John x. 16. 

It is Tinfortimate that tlie distmction so marked in the 
Greek, between /old and flock, has not been kept up in our 
translation. AvXrj and Troijdvr] are both rendered by the 
one word/oM, which gives an entirely strained and perverted 
sense to the passage. The Saviour never says there shall be 
one fold, but he assures us that, however numerous the folds 
of his people may be, the flock shall be one. There may be 
many folds and but one flock. So it has turned out in the 
providence of God; the folds are many and various, and 
built naturally and necessarily, according to the wants of 



416 



ONE FLOCK. 



the slieep ; but tlie flock of Jesus Christ, washed in his pre- 
cious blood, filled with his Spirit, and ornamented with the 
garment of his righteousness, is in all ages, nations, and cir- 
cumstances one and the same flock. Luther keeps up this 
distinction finely in his translation — " Ich habe noch andere 
Schaafe, die sind nicht aus diesem Stalk. Und dieselbigen 
muss ich herfuhren, und sie werden meine Stimme horen 
und wird eine Heerde und ein Ilirte werden." Our trans- 
lators probably followed the Yulgate, which renders both the 
Greek words, by ovile, sheepfold. Beza gives the right 
translation — " Fiet unus grex et unus pastor," — there shall 
be one flock and one shepherd. We conclude, therefore, that 
the passage determines nothing as to the necessity of one 
form of church government for all nations, ages, and cir- 
cumstances of the church, and all the arguments drawn 
from the one fold are founded on a mistranslation. The 
flock shall be one, and this is the material point, while the 
folds may be very various. This, then, is the church of the 
living God — the flock of his pasture redeemed by his cross, to 
whom belong the promises and the life everlasting, and the 
glory of the heavenly kingdom, who, divided by languages, 
folds, or forms of government, and national institutions, 
are yet really and truly one, having one head in heaven, 
one aim on the earth — his glory ; one hope of the kingdom ; 
one fountain for cleansing in the house of David ; one royal 
robe to cover their deformity — the righteousness of Christ ; 
one Quickener, Comforter, and Sanctifier; one God and 
Father, who is above all and in all. Let us say, with the 
pious Charles Wesley, 

" One faraily we dwell in him, 
One church above, beneath, 
Though now divided by the stream, 
The narrow stream of death. 



MOUNT CALVARY. 417 

One army of the living God, 

To his command we bow ; 
Part of the host have crossed the flood, 

And part are crossing now. 

0 Saviour, be our constant guide ! 

And when the word is given, 
Bid the cold waves of death divide, 

And waft us safe to heaven ! " 

Bonn, August 9th, 1853. 



VII.— MOUNT CALYAEY. 

Here we are, dearly beloved friend, on tlie lieiglits tliat 
surround Jerusalem. The holy city, lonely and solitary, 
like a forsaken widowj lies now before our eyes, not less 
interesting this moment, but perhaps more than in the days 
of her pomp and s]3lendour under the munificent King 
Solomon. The brilliancy of the jewel is heightened by the 
appropriate enamel ; light appears brighter when breaking 
through clouds and darkness, and the sufferings of the holy 
city, her ruin and captivity for ages, shed singular attrac- 
tions around the history of her glory. How dim, dark, and 
unattractive are these walls. All is still as a city of the 
dead ; no smoke rises from the houses, no windows variegate 
the walls, no throngs of busy men crowd the gates, silence 
reigns within and desolation without, and tombs, broken 
reservoirs, and other such memorials of the past, meet you 
at every turn. Here, sit down with me under this olive 
tree, and let memory have free scope, that faith and hope 
may be strengthened in beholding the desolate city. Here, 
then, we are, in the centre of the Jewish system, the city to 
which the tribes go up to worship the great King. What a 

E E 



418 MOUNT CALVAHY. 

scene it must liave been at the Feast of Tabernacles on tbese 
hills. Here the prophets lifted up the voice of warning and 
entreaty against the apostate kings and people ; here David 
composed those immortal odes, which conquer and captivate 
the civilised world. In the long history of our race there is 
no poet of equal fame. His immortal harp sheds its influ- 
ence over four hundred millions of human hearts ; and what 
is remarkable, and unlike most other heroes and poets, all 
the notes breathe of heaven. Compare these Psalms with 
the Odes of Horace, or the songs of Sappho and Anacreon, 
and you see just the difierence between heaven and earth. 
Perhaps he sat in the spot where we now are when he com- 
posed the twenty-third Psalm, one of the noblest, sweetest 
breathings of divine, holy confidence ever uttered by human 
lips. It has been the solace of millions. Perhaps over- 
taken by a storm among these rocks, he set his harp to the 
sublime strain of the twenty- ninth j)salm, which I maintain 
to be the simplest, most sublime, and satisfactory description 
of a thunder-storm in existence. Compare Homer's, Hogg's, 
and Byron's thunder-storms with it, and see how far the old 
royal poet surpasses them all. Farewell, noble singer ! you 
have done me good in my pilgrimage ; you may expect a 
visit from me shortly after my arrival in the celestial city. 
But a greater than David was here ; here we are, in deed 
and in truth, in the city of our salvation, from which the 
Kving streams flowed forth upon the nations. Here light 
arose in our darkness, and life joined issue with death, and 
conquering the king of terrors, burst forth in renovated 
beauty from the corruption of the tomb. Incarnate love 
was here ; here Da^T^d's son and David's Lord lived, laboured, 
and died for the transgressions of the people. Calvary (it is 
not spoken of as a mount in the Scriptures) sent forth from 
this place its streams of mercy for a thirsty and dying world, 



MOUNT CALVARY. 



419 



and they continue to flow still, and shall, till the great family 
of Grod be gathered home. 

" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Doth his successive journeys run; 
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
Till moons shall wax and wane no more." 

Here he bare his cross. He was indeed the Man of Sorrows 
all his life, and Calvary was the appropriate termination of 
the wonderful history. Here, as we sit and muse on these 
things, it may be right to register a vow in heaven, and 
resolve, through grace, to love, serve, and follow Him more 
faithfully than ever. Heed not the cross, but the crucified; 
not the tomb, but the immortal prisoner, on whom so many 
issues are suspended ; not the fictions of filthy monks, but the 
glorious realities of life and immortahty in the person of the 
deliverer, and let the soul rise up to the moral grandeurs of 
this scene. Here Satan, the enemy and the destroyer of our 
kind, was conquered and cast out, so that he can no longer 
assert his rule over us. Here the glories of the moral king- 
dom reached their culminating point, in that love, meeting 
all, enduring all, conquering all evils, showed itself mightier 
than sin and death, stronger than the iron bands of the tomb. 
God is love ! Every rock, every empty tomb, every crag 
and valley in this place re-echoes, God is love ! Sinners feel 
the bands of their sins relaxed as he dies and shouts, "God is 
love ! " Hades welcomes the strong deliverer and reiterates 
through its wide waste caverns — God is love ; and our souls, 
too, join the universal anthem, and respond from their lowest 
depths, " Yes, God is indeed love." This is indeed the great 
lesson which faith learns in this place, and the toils of om' 
journey will be more than well repaid should that lesson be 
written more deeply than ever on our hearts, God is love. 

E E 2 



420 



THE MEEXmG OF FRIENDS. 



" Come to Calvary's holy mountain, 
Sinners ruined by the fall ; 
Here a pure and healing fountain 

Flows to you, to me, to all, 
In a full, i^erpetual tide, 
Opened when the Saviour died." 

Bonn, August 10th, 1853. 



VIII.— THE MEETING OF FRIENDS. 

Reader, have you eyer been in foreign lands ? I don't mean 
to ask if yon liave visited the Rhine, or the mountains of 
Switzerland, or the light-hearted, light-footed inliabitants of 
Paris. That is no travelling in our days ; in all these places 
you meet Englishmen at every turn, and you feel yourself 
among people of habits, manners, and civilisation similar to 
your own. If however you have travelled farther, and been 
long from home, the meeting of a countryman will be a very 
pleasant event indeed. The meeting of one that has been 
your school-fellow as you pass through the Syrian desert, or 
ascend the Mount of Sinai, will bring tears to the eye, and 
many strange feelings into the mind. You do find these 
English everywhere ! JN^apoleon said, " Where wood swims 
I find these English;" the Arabs call them the mad lords, 
who go through the world searching for old stones and 
inscriptions to give us gold for them. As I went up Yesuvius 
to see the flaming crater at midnight, I heard an Italian 
guide encouraging a party before us in broken English, 
" IsTever mind, come along, all's right." If you stand on the 
inland side of the cit}^ Catania, and look up to the summit of 
Mount ^tna, you shall observe among the clouds a little 
cottage ; they call it " The Englishman's house." One of 



THE MEETING OF FRIENDS. 



421 



our countrymen it seems determined to examine tlie famous 
volcano at his leisure, and so built a cottage at the summit. 
Stand on the Bridge of Jacob, and observe what that man is 
doing. He is engaged with Arabs, stringing bladders 
together, in order to form a raft to carry him down the 
Jordan from lake Hule, or the waters of Merom, to the sea of 
Tiberias. He is an Englishman who wishes to explore the 
banks of the sacred river. As I stood under the dome of St. 
Peter, reading the prominent words which meet and attract 
the eye, Aio tu es petrus, et super banc petram ecclesiam 
meam sedificabo ; et contra eam portae inferorum non prseva- 
lebunt," a man touched me on the shoulder and reminded me 
of our meeting on the Lebanon. We were friends in an 
instant, and old times and old scenes were called to our 
remembrance. One of the first men who met me in Alex- 
andria was a mechanic from Killeleagh, in the J^orth of 
Ireland, where he had often heard me preach. Home exer- 
cises a strange influence over iis. I examined one of the guns 
used by the Arabs, and found below the lock the word 
London. In a moment I was home again in our own loved 
land, with its thousand nameless blessings and endearments. 
I have been led into these reflections by a visit yesterday 
from my dear friend, the Rev. Mr. Smyth, one of the mis- 
sionaries banished from Austria. He laboured ten years 
in Pesth, and his ministry was blessed 'to both Jews and 
Gentiles, but the paternal government of Austria banished 
him, and he now labours in Amsterdam. We have had 
much large-hearted communion together, and much con- 
versation concerning the progress of the kingdom, and the 
hopes of the people of Israel. Is not all this typical ? Yes, 
we are all strangers and pilgrims upon the earth, as our 
fathers were ; and the meeting place is heaven. That will 
be a joyful meeting ! All the saints together, and around the 



422 



POLYGAMY. 



throne of the adorable Redeemer, who loved them and washed 
them from their sins in his own blood. No more sin, separa- 
tion, or sorrow; no more pain, temptation, and death for 
evermore ; but the fulness of bliss, with their Grod and Father, 
in the many mansioned house made without hands. This 
is the grand meeting. This is the lodging which the Lord 
has prepared for his people, in the immeasurable heights of 
eternity. Brother, make sure of a room in that house ; let 
no man take thy crown. 

Bonn, August llth, 1853. 



IX.— POLYGAMY. 

Abdallah said to me one day in Damascus, The advan- 
tages of our system over yours are great and numerous. If 
you have no heir for your property by your one wife what do 
you do ? You must give your estates to strangers ; we can 
take another wife, and divorce her, too, as often as we please, 
till we find an heir. When one wife is angry, we seek the 
company of another ; with you the one wife rules, she has 
you entirely in her power ; our variety gives vis the supremacy 
and keeps the wives in proper subjection. Besides, they require 
to be ruled with a firm hand, for God has created them from 
a croolml rib, and they are perverse and rebellious. If you 
have a large house, you must be very lonely in it with only 
one wife ; our system increases the population more than 
yours, and the more true believers there are the more sotds 
enter into Paradise. What do rich merchants do who travel 
from town to town and have no establishment but one? 
They must be in constant misery. We have a wife and 
family in every city, and find a comfortable home wherever 



POLYGAMY. 



423 



we go. Thus in eyery respect our system is better than 
yours.'* Hold, cried I, and do not conclude so rashly. We 
follow the law of God and nature, while you violate it and 
approximate the brutes. God created them male and female 
at the beginning, and as he did not give Adam four Eves in 
Paradise, we shall be content with one, as our great father 
was. Besides, on your own principles, the more perverse and 
rebellious they are, the more should you keep clear of them. 
One rebel is not so dangerous as four. You are evidently 
in danger of being blown up in your harem. Eemember, too, 
that Providence is against your system, for if you poll any 
nation you will find just as many males as females in it and 
no more, which shows clearly enough the intention of God. 
It is evident that ten men, each with his wife, would be likely 
to rear more children for Paradise than one man with ten 
wives. This is a historical fact. The European nations are 
increasing rapidly, while in Turkey, where your boasted poly- 
gamy prevails, the population is either stationary or decreasing. 
What do you say to that fact ? You are too distracted to have 
large families, and your families, instead of being the cheerful 
abodes of peace and comfort, where love rules and guides all 
things, are scenes of turmoil and envy, discontentment and 
malice, much liker a pandemonium of devils than a nursery 
of Paradise. " If it be the will of God," replied Abdallah, 
" you shall come over to the opinion of the prophet, but you 
have more to say for yourself than I supposed. Farewell. 
We shall argue it out at some other time." 

Bonn, August I2th, 1853. 



424 



THE FEMALE CHARACTER IN THE EAST. 



X.— THE FEMALE CHARACTER IN THE EAST. 

Tile incarnation of tlie Son of God is the basis upon wliich 
the respect and honour due to woman rests, and this great 
fact can be proved morally, scripturally, and historically. 
It is universally known that she introduced sin and corrup- 
tion into the world, and where it is not known or disbelieved 
that she introduced also the seed of righteousness, the serpent- 
bruiser, she is and must be looked upon with suspicion, and 
treated as a slave. She is seen to be the way of death, but 
not the way of life ; the black curse of a broken law and a 
ruined creation rests upon her, while the removal of the 
curse, and the redemption of the world by the Yir gin's Son, 
have not dissipated the suspicions of the nations. It is 
therefore a fact, that among Moslems, where incarnation is 
utterly rejected, women are slaves, nothing but slaves, and if 
they sometimes show their strength, it is in the way of vio- 
lence, fanaticism, and despair. Like slaves, they are bought 
and sold freely, and the fair slave as much estimated as any 
other woman. They are divorced at will, and without cause 
assigned, save the husband's sovereign pleasure. They are 
totally uneducated, inasmuch as their place is not to be the 
companion and help -mate for man, but the slave of his 
pleasures, and a kind of upper servant in the domestic 
economy. Do not educate them, say the Moslems, for they 
will in that case certainly deceive you ; they are too weak 
for knowledge, it makes them dizzy, and you will certainly 
repent having trusted them with it. If you give them liberty, 
they are unfaithful ; if you imprison them, they are sulky 
and perverse ; if you love and fondle them, they seek su- 
premacy, and will never be satisfied tiU they trample you 
under their feet ; they have indeed souls, but they are cun- 



THE FEMALE CHARACTER IN THE EAST. 425 

ning and perverse. Mohammed mentions nothing about them 
in Paradise, and the first whom he met in hell were women — 
the women who spoke irreverently to their husbands. From 
such and similar sentiments which pervade the East generally, 
you may gather much respecting the state and position of 
women. The prejudice against education is deep and almost 
ineradicable. Add to this, that the only educated females are 
the dancing girls and priestesses of the temples, whose trade 
is profligacy and pollution. There is no greater impediment 
in the way of Christianity in the East than this awful, 
tremendous fact — that custom, the practice of ages, the laws 
sacred and national, all contemplate woman in the character 
of a slave. In India it is still worse than in Syria. Menu, 
the Indian legislator, says, " Infidelity, violence, deceit, envy, 
extreme avariciousness, a total want of good qualities, with 
impurity, are the innate faults of woman kind.'* In such 
a state of degradation education seems impossible, and the 
missionary feels overwhelmed in the number and immensity 
of his discouragements. But is there no Christianity in the 
East ? What is it doing ? Has it done nothing to mitigate 
these evils ? It has done much, and would have done more, 
but for the impediments which hemmed it round on all sides. 
The glorious churches of the East, founded by the labours of 
apostles and apostolic men, soon fell from their first love, and 
yielding to the blandishments of royal favour, forgot the 
rock from which they were hewn, and the citadel where the 
secret of their strength lay. They became worldly, avaricious, 
and poKtical. They leaned on the arm of flesh, and the cor- 
rupting arm corrupted them, till their apostolic beauty and 
purity became tarnished and made them a prey for the 
spoiler. Their faith in the living God was weakened, and 
false doctrines poisoned the very fountains of their life, until 
in the wrath and judgment of Jehovah, the locusts from the 



426 THE FEMALE CHARACTER IN THE EAST. 

pit were let loose upon them, and the flaming scimetar encir- 
cling the crescent, accomplished its bloody mission of exter- 
mination and conquest. The nations fell, the empire was 
prostrated, and the corrupted and disunited Christian com- 
munities bowed before the conquering enthusiasm of the 
desert. The iron entered into their soul; it does so still. 
They were spoiled and sacked, sacked and spoiled, and the 
noblest energies of the man and the Christian annihilated 
under the dominion of Islam. They are entirely degraded ; 
the burdens of the tax-gatherer oppress them ; ages of sub- 
mission to proud defiant conquerors have made them weak, 
cowardly, and time-serving ; the traditions of former glories 
are lost or forgotten in the prolonged agonies of political and 
religious bondage. I declare that when I look at all this, 
and think of the nameless miseries of all kinds to which they 
have been subjected for ages, I am much less inclined to find 
fault with the corruj^tions of the Christians in the East than 
to bless God for their existence. Honour to the brave ! They 
have survived the fury of the conqueror, and withstood the 
most fiery military fanaticism the world ever saw ; and in 
spite of all these impediments, Christianity has elevated and 
brightened the female character in the East. The Christian 
women are not slaves as the Moslem ladies are, and the 
glorious truth of the incarnation, though obscured and cor- 
rupted, has not been without its elevating influence. They 
cannot be divorced as the Mohammedan females are, and I 
have met very intelligent and well-informed ladies among the 
Christians of Damascus. 



Bonn, August ISth, 1853-^ 



SIGNS or IMPROVEMENT IN THE EAST. 



427 



XT.— RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT 
IN THE EAST. 

Do not suppose for a moment that it can be the intention of 
the Ruler of the world to overwhelm the fairest regions of 
the globe, under the scourge of all- destroying barbarians. 
His moral government has other and nobler ends in view, and 
will no doubt result in such glories as shall justify, to the eye 
of faith and right reason, the seemingly dark ways of provi- 
dence. The balance-sheet clears up the accoimt, and the 
clearly ascertained jpurpose of His ulterior working, will cast 
a flood of light on the entire course of his administration. 
Are there any signs which, to the observant eye, seem to give 
indications of that purpose ? There seem to be ; consider 
the following. 

1st. The fury of fanaticism is exhausted ; the conquerors 
have sat down in the cities and provinces of luxury and 
civilisation, and thereby lost the enthusiastic energy of the 
mountains or the desert. The strength of the Moslem is not 
like that of a Christian, to sit still ; but to go forward on the 
way of blood and conquest. The moment it ceases to advance, 
its strength is broken, and the crescent begins to wane. 
Since the heroic Poles delivered Vienna, and resisted the 
aggressive torrent, the boundaries of Islam have been gradu- 
ally but steadily receding. The strong compact dominion 
of the conquering Sidtans is gone, and the empire internally 
and externally ripe for dissolution. Greece is independent, 
Hungary no longer tributary, and Egypt a mere nominal 
appendage to the empire. The European powers may try 
to undergird the state-vessel of Othman, but it wiU be in vain, 
she is no longer sea- worthy and must perish in the waters. 

^nd. The self-confidence of the Turks is gone. An internal 



428 



RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL SIGNS OF 



feeling of weakness and distrust pervades tlie nation, whicli 
is no indistinct prognostication of its fall. This feeling 
pervades also the subject nations, and gives them confidence 
and hope. Many miles east of Damascus, Dr. Paulding 
and I were asked by the villagers when the English were 
coming to take the country ; with the loudly proclaimed 
assertion, that the sooner they did so the better. A wealthy 
Moslem in Damascus told me he was persuaded the Christians 
would prevail, and that Stamboul had no safety but in their 
divisions. The Janissaries are destroyed, and the strong 
military spirit which they fostered is broken. Changes in 
the East are easy, I mean political changes. The people have 
no rights to be guarded, no constitution to be maintained 
inviolate, no clearly- defined aspirations after liberty to be 
fought for and realized. The government is not mollified 
as with us, by mediating circumstances, such as councils, 
assemblies, provincial parliaments, &c. The rulers are dis- 
tinct and separate from the ruled. Put new pashas in the 
provinces, and a new head in the capital, and all things will go 
on as quietly as usual. The people will take no permanent part 
in these changes ; all they want is the removal of the burdens, 
and thus all the complications which with us arise out of the 
rights of the people, the sentiment of liberty and free con- 
stitutions, are removed from revolutions in the East. 

3rd. The Oriental churches are beginning to show symptoms 
of returning life ; the incrustation formed by ages seems giving 
way in many places, and the light and truth of heaven have 
reached the corrupting vitals of the decaying corporations. 
The American missionaries have been labouring long and 
faithfully in these sunny lands, and now the Lord of the 
harvest is beginning to own their labours with abundant 
fruits. They have erected schools, and established colleges, 
in all the principal places of the Turkish empire ; and by 



IMPROVEMENT IN THE EAST. 429 

preacMng and printing tliey have, in mucli weariness and 
opposition, conveyed to all classes of Christians an impulse 
and a life unknown for centuries in the East. Certain 
nations and communities have been stirred up to the very 
centre, and fresh vitality poured into the old organisms ; in 
other cases, when persecution has been bitter, new commu- 
nities have been formed, and the foundations have been laid 
deep and broad for a great Scriptural Oriental Evangelical 
Church. Travellers and tourists notice these changes, noble- 
men and members of Parliament praise the wisdom, perseve- 
rance, and courage of the missionaries, and Mr. Layard, the 
famous antiquarian of Nineveh and Babylon, adds his very 
noble testimony to the rest. All this seems the comjnence- 
ment of great and beneficial changes for the East. They 
gave us the fountain pure and fresh at the beginning, and 
after the lapse of nearly two thousand years we return them 
the living waters in all their original sweetness. 

4th. Prophetically, too, we should not shut our eyes to the 
signs of the times, since we are assured that the sure word of 
prophecy is as a light that shineth in a dark place until the day 
dawn and the day-star arise in our hearts (2 Peter i. 19) . First, 
then, the Euphrates is now being dried up in the wasting and 
exhaustion of the Turkish Empire, and this seems to be pre- 
paratory for the return of the kings of the East, which the 
best expositors take to be the ten tribes of Israel. (2.) Grreece 
has been re-established as an independent power, and thus the 
image of Daniel stands reconstituted in its integrity, ready to 
be smitten whenever the kingdom of the stone may descend 
upon it. (3.) It is not improbable that in the political events 
which are to accomplish the overthrow of the Ottoman Em- 
pire, Palestine may fall to the lot of the Jews, and this might 
lead to the restoration of the nation, an event evidently con- 
nected in the prophetic word with the coming of the kingdom, 



430 exegesis; or, an ass eating thistles. 

tlie blessing of tlie nations, the downfall of Antichrist, and all 
the glories of the millennial reign. All these are signs of the 
times, and the eye of faith and hope should not heedlessly 
pass over them. Is it not good, and holy, and blessed to find 
God in the movements of His providence, to meet Him, if 
possible, at every turn and winding in the course of His moral 
government of the world ? If you do not seek Him, you will 
not find Him, and if, in the spirit of humility and love, you 
do seek Him, you will find Him in providence as well as in 
grace. Many eyes are looking towards the East, and some 
are beginning to see what many take to be the roseate streaks 
that proclaim the approach of day. Be it so ; we hail the 
rising light which is to dispel the darkness of the nations and 
fill the whole earth with righteousness as the waters cover 
the sea. 

" Then like streams that feed the garden, 

Pleasures without end shall flow ; 
For the Lord, your faith rewarding, 

All his bounty shall bestow : 
Still, in undisturbed possession. 

Peace and righteousness shall reign ; 
Never shall you feel oppression, 

Hear the voice of war again." 

Bonn, August lUh, 1853. 



Xn.— EXEGESIS; OR, AN ASS EATING THISTLES. 

Exegesis, exegetical, hermeneuticks, and hermeneutical, 
are hard heathenish words of modern invention, which seem, 
when you get at the meaning of them, to signify the exposi- 
tion of the Word of God ; but as exposition, expository, 
expounding, are easily understood, they did not answer the 



EXEGESIS ; OR, AN ASS EATING THISTLES. 431 

purpose of that kind of criticism, wliose purpose was to 
perplex the understanding and explain away the text. There- 
fore a mist must be raised, in order that the denier and 
blasphemer might escape without the contempt and repro- 
bation of the Christian reader. Taken in the right sense, 
exegesis, or exposition, is one of the noblest exercises of the 
human mind. It is comparing spiritual things with spiritual, 
to obtain a clear comprehension of the mind of God in His 
holy word, and it may bring to bear upon the meaning of 
particular texts, or on the defence of the whole Scripture, 
the most massive erudition. This kind of exegesis is useful, 
and may be helpful to the children of God on their homeward 
journey. When it is used, however, by proud unsanctified 
minds, not in subordination to the Word of God, but to 
establish a theory, or to make the Word of God a nose of waXy 
that can be easily twisted in any direction, it becomes a most 
noxious and potent enemy to the truth, inasmuch as it gives 
subtle perverse disputants the means of perplexing the 
clearest truths, and prolonging the logomachy for ever. The 
Word of God is the arena on which this giant takes his 
stand, in order to show how he can scatter firebrands, arrows, 
and death all around — with what ease he can sport with the 
highest verities of revelation, and reduce the great facts of 
the New Testament and even the glorious Person of whom 
they testify to a flimsy system of idealism, in which the 
foot finds no resting-place, and the eye no star of hope — a 
system not the less absurd, but the more because it is liber- 
ally sprinkled with phrases about reason, the spirit of the 
age, philosophy, and hermeneuticks. Now, this must suffice 
for my first head. We come now, secondly, to the ass eating 
thistles, which divides itself into two heads — the ass, and 
the eating of the thistles. Now, I compare such a critic as 
I have described to an ass, and the comparison holds good 



432 EXEGESIS ; OR, AN ASS EATING THISTLES. 

in many respects. 1st. The Greek word is derived from oVw, 
quod notat vitupero ; and vituperation, it is well known, is 
the native element of such, rationalistic critics. 2nd. The 
voice of the ass is its defence — even a lion will turn awav 
from a donkey in the act of braying. Who can encounter 
a full-grown hermeneuticker when surrounded with his 
sesquipedalian terminology ? His voice terrifies lions, and 
his skin is more impenetrable than the crocodile's. Homer 
compares Achilles to a donkey, so that the comparison is 
by no means degrading. It is rather honourable indeed, as 
the donkey is a patient, hardy, thick-skinned animal, and 
of unequal mind (Hor. Sat. Lib. i. ix. 20). In all these 
respects, and some others too, the simile is good and appro- 
priate. But secondly, he is like an ass eating thistles. This is 
the main point, according to the opinion of the late learned and 
eloquent Robert Hall. It is said Bentley inclined also to the 
opinion that the essential part of the comparison lay in the 
eating. JSTow I mean no disrespect to great men such as these 
when I say, that not the act alone is the gist of the figure, nor 
yet the thistles, but the general all-including compound idea 
of eating thistles, and for this there are five principal reasons, 
which in another place I shall fully bring out. Taking this 
single point now for granted, we proceed to open up the 
symbol ; and formally answer the question, " How is a ra- 
tionaKstic critic at his text like an ass eating thistles ?" Of 
course it is not to be expected that a question of this weight 
and compass should be answered in all its possible bearings, 
this would require much time, labour, and a critical apparatus 
of considerable dimensions. All I intend is of course to give the 
simplest, easiest points in the comparison. First, then, what 
does the ^f/^z-'sif/e denote? Answer — It denotes the stubborn, tough, 
unyielding text; for example, Gsoc yw o Xoyo^ ( John i. 1), 
and the object of the ass is to remove it out of the field, or 



LOVE-TOKETsS. 



433 



at least bite off its prickles. I say this is the object, or end, 
or what the Germans call the Endzweck of the ass, in the 
action specified. If the weed can be removed, well ; if it is 
deeply rooted in the soil, and will not yield to the pulling 
of the ass, then you must try to render it as innocuous as 
possible. To effect this end, the means at the disposal of the 
ass are two : First, as the stomach of the donkey is of a strong 
consistency, and its digestive powers good, it can swallow 
a good part of the thistle, but it must first be well clmcecl. 
Even so the rationalists can swallow much of the word of 
Grod after it is sufficiently chewed. This is an important 
process, and necessary for digestion. But, secondly, much 
of the thistle will yield to no powers of mastication, and this 
the ass spits out, which expulsory action of the ass sym- 
bolises the remarkable power of the above-mentioned critics 
to resist the force of whole sections of Scripture, after 
grammar, philology, ancient manuscripts, and different 
versions have been appealed to in vain. Thus in fact the 
main points of this hermeneutical process reduce themselves 
to two, like the functions of an ass eating thistles — chew 
what you can and sipit out the remainder. 

Bonn, August loth, 1853. 



XIIL— LOYE-TOKEXS. 

Love and hatred are the stimulants of memory. We 
must become indifferent before we forget. When the feeling 
of love is strong, how active is memory to find connecting 
links to bind us to our love ! The time, the place, the least 
ircumstance, will become the awakener of memory and the 
ood of hope. The principle is both natural and useful. It 

F F 



434 



LOVE-TOKENS. 



lias indeed, in a religious sense, been turned to tlie service 
of superstition and idolatry, so tliat one is afraid to assert 
generally tlie propriety of religious symbolism. I can respect 
the feeling that bows to a cross set up on the wayside, or 
takes off the hat to an image of the Virgin, however per- 
verted it may be ; and it is, perhaps, not impossible to retain 
pictures, crosses, and images without idolising them. The 
Lutherans retain them in their churches, and defend the use 
of them vigorously, but they reject entirely the practice of 
turning to them, or praying before them. The churches are 
filled with them, but nobody pays the least attention to them. 
It might be asked. Then what is the use of them ? and for a 
Lutheran the question is difficult. Steering clear, however, 
of this knotty question, we hold it safer to adhere to the 
letter of the Scripture, which recognises only one image, or 
uKLov Tov Seov (Col. i. 15), the image of the invisible God, 
in which we can behold the reflected attributes of the God- 
head. But far otherwise is it with the gifts and love-tokens 
of our heavenly Bridegroom. Him we seek to recognise in 
all His gifts of nature and grace, and the times and places 
of His presence and special love are the sweetest memorials 
of the loving heart. 

Where'er my longing heart can look, 

Within, around, ahove, 
I find in all I see and hear 

Memorials of my Love ! 

I see Him in the rising sun ; 

He is Himself the Light; 
1 read his name in every star 

That twinkles in the night. 

Each gift is dear because He gives ; 
Each place when He is there ; 



LONGING AFTEH GOD. 



435 



And fond remembrance loves to guard 
Each token of His care. 

I meet Him in the shady bowers, 
Among the leafy trees ; 

I see Him in the summer showers, 
I hear Him in the breeze. 

To Him the warblers of the grove 
Lift up their tuneful strain, 

And everj streamlet whispers sweet 
The music of His name. 

August IQth, 1853. 



XIV.— LONGING AFTER GOD. 

There are many sweet promises wMcL. lead the soul onward 
and upward into ever fuller and closer commimion with Grod. 
" I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods 
upon the dry ground ; I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, 
and my blessing upon thine oflPspring." (Is. xliv. 3 ; comp. 
Is. XXXV. 7 ; Joel ii, 28 ; John vii. 38 ; Acts ii. 18 ; Ezek. 
xxxvi. 25.) These overtures of the Divine mercy are free 
and full, so that the weary, perishing world has no excuse 
save their own unwillingness to come. He that feels no 
thirst will not drink, even though surrounded with fountains 
of water. There is no want of living water, for the Spirit 
of grace has been poured out from on high ; but there are 
few thirsty souls who long to drink it. There is too much 
thirst after earthly things, after gold and the pleasures 
which it brings, after the lusts of the flesh and the enjoy- 
ments of the world. We have too much burning hunger 
after honour, and the respect of our fellow-men ; after 
ambition, splendour, and human glory. Where, in such 

r F 2 



436 



LONGING AFTER GOD. 



hearts, is tliere any room for heavenly desires and the 
refreshment of Pentecostal showers ? Grod opens his living 
fountains only in thirsty hearts ; in hearts which, like hard, 
sun-hnrnt soil in summer, long after consolation and comfort, 
and cry night and day to heaven for life, and peace, and 
holy fellowship with God. He that is satisfied in himself 
cannot receive the Comforter ; he that feels his weakness 
and wants, and yet will not continue instant and fervent in 
prayer, either receives none of His consolations, or at most 
only a partial supply. Without His presence, all is withered 
and dead. Therefore pray, strive, wrestle, till the rain 
comes, which alone can satisfy the thirsty soul ; till the 
Redeemer pour upon thee His living waters, and thy soul 
finds contentment in the pastures of His love. Ask, seek, 
knock, and remember you come before a Father in the name 
of the Elder Brother, so that you may have boldness and 
confidence before the throne of grace. In crying for the 
Spirit, you are asking what is promised, so that the faithful- 
ness of Jehovah is pledged, when asked in the name of 
Christ, to supply all your real wants. 

God of mercy, God of love, 
Send thy Spirit from above ; 
Burn away each base desire 
In that sin-consuming fire. 

Dying souls, revive anew, 
Watered by that heavenly dew; 
Sweetly-scented are the flowers 
Under Pentecostal showers. 

Thou hast promised ; thou art God ; 
Shed the Comforter abroad, 
Till these hearts, from sin set free, 
Find eternal joy in Thee ! 

August nth, 1853. 



A LETTER TO POPE PIUS IX. 



437 



XV.— A LETTER TO POPE PIUS IX. THE SCEIPTUEE. 

You will permit me, Holy Father (vlog ttjq awdyXelag, 
2 Thes. ii. 3), to draw your attention to certain points of doc- 
trine, now that the Romans have calmed down a little, and 
foreign bayonets secure the safety of your person in your own 
city. I am the more anxious to gain access to your ear im- 
mediately, as the calm that reigns at present may be deceptive, 
and the time of tumult and retribution near at hand. 

I. Yoio teach that the Holy Scripture does not contain all 
that is necessary to salvation. That it is not a sufficient rule of 
faith and practice for the Christian. Bellarmine, De Yerbo Dei, 
lib. iv. 3. Council of Trent, Sess. 4. ]^^ow consider, I be- 
seech you, the following words of God in the Scripture 
(1 Tim. iii. 15) : "From a child thou hast known the Holy 
Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, 
through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Here evidently 
Paul differed from your doctrine, for he asserts they are able 
to make wise unto salvation. Read the 15th, 16th, and 17th 
verses, and you must draw the following conclusions : 1st. 
That Timothy is praised for having known the Scriptures 
early. 2nd. The Scriptures are able to make us wise unto 
salvation. 3rd. They are inspired of God, and consequently, 
can make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto 
all good works. If, then, from the Scriptures we can be led 
into all good works, what room is left for tradition ? It has 
nothing left it to do. Hear what the Saviour Himself says to 
the Jews : Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye 
have eternal life ; and they are they which testify of me " 
(John V. 39). Is it not presumption or something worse, that 
you, claiming to be His vicar, should contradict Him to 
His very face ? He says, Search the Scriptures : you curse, 



438 A LETTER TO POPE PIUS IX. 

execrate, and condemn those wlio obey Him ; He says they con- 
tain eternal life, yon say tliey are not snfficient ; He says they 
testify of Him, and yon say they are dangerous for the people. 
The Holy Scriptures can give us fellowship with the Father 
and the Son, and fulness of joy (1 John i. 3, 4), and abundant 
consolation (E-om. xv. 4), and the conversion of the soul 
(Ps. xix. 7). Do not these passages assert the sufficiency and 
perfection of the Scriptures ? Jesus is the source and foun- 
tain of Kfe to the soul, and the Scriptures are the record 
which God gives of Him. There we get perfection, if it is to 
be found at all ; and the Holy Spirit does not direct us to 
tradition, written or oral, as a necessary appendage to the 
Word of God. 

II. You teach that the Holy Scripture is not ivritten by 
the express commandment and inspiration of God. Bellar- 
mine, De Yerbo Dei, lib. iv. 4. The motives for this 
sentiment are easily found, but they are very ignoble and 
dishonouring to the authority of God. You want to ele- 
vate tradition, and therefore you must degrade the Scrip- 
tures ; you want to make the authority of the Scripture 
depend on the Church, that the priest may obtain the supreme 
rule in the world. All must depend on you : you give the 
Word of God its power, you hold the power of the heavenly 
keys, you even create, sacrifice, and eat the eternal Son of God 
at your pleasure ! You may well seek to degrade the Scrip- 
tures that ye may get honour one of another. But hear what 
the Word of God says on the subject : " All Scripture is given 
by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for re- 
proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the 
man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all 
good works " (2 Tim. iii. 18). This cuts up your theories by 
the roots, and asserts the sovereign authority of the Bible. 
The glorious utterance, " All Scripture is given by inspiration 



A LETTER TO POPE PIUS IX. 



439 



of Grod," renders the Papal aiitliority nnnecessary, and at the 
same time furnishes a rock for the feet of the saints on which 
they can safely meet the issues of eternity. The writers did 
not follow the movements of their own will in the matter, for, 
" holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost " (2 Pet. i. 21). God is the author of this book called 
the Bible, as really as He is the Architect of the universe. 
This refutes the opinions of your doctors and Jesuits, who 
maintain that it was written for occasions, and not by the ex- 
press command of God. Compare on this subject Phil. iii. 1 ; 
2 Sam. xxiii. 2 ; Ex. xvii. 14 ; Deut. xxxi. 19 ; Is. xxx. 8 ; 
Rev. i. 19 ; Luke i. 70 ; Acts i. 16, iii. 18. These passages 
do assuredly prove that the Holy Scriptures are the inspired 
Word of God, and the proper guide and directory of the 
Church in all the ages of the world. We hold then, with 
Christ, and we oppose his Yicar, for one word of His truth is 
dearer to us than whole volumes of your traditions, especially 
when those traditions contradict the Scriptures. 

III. Many of your practices as well as the writings of your 
servants are based on the principle that the Scriptures are 
obscure. Bellarmine, De Yerbo Dei, lib. iii. 1 ; Charron, 
Yerite, iii. chap. 3 : Coton, lib. cap. 19 ; and Baile, Traite i. ; 
and many others. Now I observe on this subject, that here, 
as in many other cases, you join hands with the Pagans, who 
make this one of the charges against the Holy Scriptures. 
They charge them with obscurity, absurdity, and falsehood. 
This has led some writers to consider Paganism and Popery 
as different editions of the same work. We reply both to you 
and your Pagan coadjutors, that the obscurity arises not from 
the Scriptures, but from your want of understanding, even as 
in the works of God there are many things which surpass our 
reason. We should not transfer our blindness to the all- 
seeing God. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the 



440 



A LETTER TO POPE PIUS IX. 



soul ; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the 
simple ; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the 
heart ; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening 
the eyes " (Ps. xix. 7, 8). Besides, is not the Redeemer the 
light of the world? Does not the holy apostle Paul 
threaten you, if he does not condemn you, along with 
the god of this world, for blinding the minds of them that 
believe not, ''Lest the light of the glorious gospel of 
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto 
them" (2 Cor. iv. 4). I am afraid it is because of its clear- 
ness that you keep it so diligently from the eyes of the people. 
The King of Israel did not think it obscure : " Thy word is a 
lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path " (Ps. cxix. 
105.) David found the Old Testament light, and your HoK- 
ness (2 Thess. ii. 3) finds the 'New obscurity. Perhaps you 
turn your back to the lamp, as in that case you cannot expect 
to see by it. Even the prophecies are not represented as obscure 
unintelligible hieroglj^hics ; they are described as " the sure 
vjord of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as 
unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, 
and the day-star arise in your hearts " (2 Peter i. 19). Let 
me point the attention of your Holiness to the following pro- 
phecies, to which you shall do well that ye take heed : 1. The 
prophecy of the great apostacy and the man of sin (2 Thess. 
ii. 3 — 13); 11. The prophecy respecting Babylon in the Apo- 
cah^se (xvii). Study these two particularly, and you will 
find great advantage from it. 

lY. Your Bull, called "TJnigenitus," your Cardinal Bellar- 
mine (DeYerbo Dei, Kb. ii. cap. 15), and your Index Expur- 
gatorius (regul. 4), all agree in designating the reading of 
the Scripture by the laity as a principle " false, scandalous, 
heretical, and dangerous.'' Hear what the holy Jesus says 
to the nation of the Jews: ''Search the Scriptures; for in 



A LETTER TO POPE PIUS IX. 



441 



tliem ye tHiiik ye liave eternal life, and they are they wMcli 
testify of me" (Jolin v. 39). You see liere tlie difference 
between the Man of Sin and the Man of Sorrows. The same 
command was given by the God of Israel (Dent. vi. 3 — 10), 
and repeated in various forms, at different times, by the 
prophets. See the following Scriptures, Isaiah xxiv. 16 ; 
Deut. xvii. 18, 19 ; Jos. i. 8 ; Luke xi. 28; Acts viii. ST, 28; 
xvii. 11 ; 2 Tim. iii. 15 ; 1 Thess. v. 27 ; Eev. i. 3, &c. &c. 
All these passages, and many others, show the propriety and 
duty of reading the Word of God. Nor is there any Kmita- 
tion mentioned. The works of God are all around us, and we 
may question them concerning the Creator ; and the "Word 
of God should be in every man's hand, to teach him what he 
owes to his Redeemer. There is no contradiction. The 
author of both books is the same, even as the objects of their 
testimonies, creation and redemption, are the works of the 
same Almighty hand. Note, if you please, that of all the 
books of the Old and New Testaments, not one is directed to . 
the Pope, nor to the priests, nor to the clergjTuen, nor even 
to the pastors of the flock. They are all addressed to the 
laity. This is remarkable, is it not ? Paul, who wrote the 
most, never notices either Pope or priest in his addresses. 
(Romans i. 7 ; 1 Cor. i. 2 ; 2 Cor. i. 1 ; Gal. i. 2 ; Eph. i. 1, 
&c.) It is unfortunate, but it cannot be helped. Surely, 
those to whom letters are addressed have a better right to read 
them than those to whom they are not addressed ; the epistles 
are for the churches, and they are bound to understand them ; 
the Bible, as a whole, is directed to the Church (though not 
for her alone), as her guide and directory through the snares 
and temptations of the world. The saints are addressed 
(Phil. i. 1), and the twelve tribes scattered abroad (Jas. i. 1), 
and the strangers (1 Peter i. 1), and those who have received 
the precious faith (2 Peter i. 1). John addresses fathers, 



442 ' GERMANY; VARIOUS PARTICULARS. 

young men, and little children, and he wrote an entire epistle 
to an elect lady ; but none to the Pope, the cardinals, or the 
sacrificing priesthood, who claim such superhuman powers. 
And now, in conclusion, I must bid your E-everence farewell. 
It is a little more than seven years since I had the pleasure 
of meeting you in Eome. I mentioned, at the time, that I did 
not much like your sermon ; but I said then, and I say now, 
it was as good as could be expected from you. 

Farewell, 

^Y. Gr. 

Bonn, August I9th, 1853. 



XVL— GEEMANY; PECULIAEITIES ; VARIOUS 
PAETICULARS. 

An Evening Party. — The Germans are very social, and their 
friendships are deep and lasting ; they kiss when they meet 
and part, like the Arabs, though their kiss is not threefold, on 
the forehead and each cheek, like that of the sons of the 
desert. It strikes me there is something barbarous in men 
kissing each other, especially when they have long beards. 
I have done it about half-a-dozen times in my life, and on 
each occasion I felt my flesh creep strangely. The German 
suppers are superb. The Scottish breakfast, the English 
dinner, and the German supper, if brought together, would 
surpass the imjDerial requirements of Yitellius. A German 
supper lasts three or four hours, has ten or twelve courses, 
and drinking, eating, and talking go on the whole time. The 
wines are light and healthful, and drunkenness nearly un- 
iknown. 



GERMANY ; VARIOUS PARTICULARS. 443 

Pastor W. — There is just now come to Germany from Eng- 
land, a deputation to persuade us to adopt their religious 
Kberties. I was formerly a favourer of these principles, but 
now I am cured ; I prefer our present state to the English 
sects. We cannot have perfect liberty ' and an Established 
Church. The sects have cured me. 

Mr. Graham. — I too am against the sects, and I detest the 
spirit of sectarianism ; I am a member of three national 
churches, and defend the principle of estabKshments. I know 
the sects in Germany to which you refer, and, while I would 
oppose them, I would not persecute them. Mr. Oncken and 
the Baptists are bigoted, narrow-minded people, and on the 
subject of baptism they are nearly mad. Their principles of 
church- communion are false. They shut out from their com- 
munion the children of God, and the Lutheran receives the 
children of the devil. I can hardly say which practice is the 
worse. But why so angry with these people? They are 
Christians — they hold the fundamentals fast — they seek to 
conform their lives to the gospel. Oncken is nearly the only 
man in Germany I have found who has right views of the 
Word of God. I challenge you to name me four professors 
in Germany who admit the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. 
Mr. Oncken has done more for the truth in Germany than 
any other man living. But, you say, he does not baptise 
children, and he separates from the state church ! Admitted 
that these are errors — great errors — ^let me ask you to look at 
our own Established Church of Prussia ; have we no errors 
there ? Look at our professors in Bonn. One strenuously 
advocates the Apocrjrpha ; Ritchel is a high Arian, in so far 
as he has any definite opinions at all ; E-othe is sui generis, 
a true kind of Melchisedeck, without predecessor or successor 
— a very pious man, who believes as follows : — The whole 
doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a fiction ; Paul never teaches 



444 



GERMANY; VARIOUS PARTICULARS. 



the pre-existence of Christ ; Jesus Christ is truly God because 
the true God dwells in Him. ; the Spirit of God is God himself ; 
the Scriptures are of Divine authority, yet they contain many 
errors, and of various kinds. Sir, there are more errors in 
your own university than would make ten English sects. 
There is not one sect in England would admit Rothe to the 
Lord's Table, if we except, perhaps, the Unitarians ; yet, with 
all this staring you in the face, you speak against the 
Baptists ! 

Dr. Kortis. — The pastors should be bound to a creed, the 
professors should be free ; they must treat the subject of 
theology in a scientific manner. Would you banish literature 
out of the church ? — then we return to cloisters and convents 
of the middle ages. We have no pope to bind us together, 
and in the universities opinion should be free. The English 
universities are absolutely different from ours : the church 
rules them, the state rules ours ; and to change ours now is 
plainly impossible, even if it were desirable, for the free spirit 
of the people would be entirely opposed to it. 



Souses. — A German house is very like an English one. 
The rooms are more ornamented and glittering than ours, 
but they are not more comfortable. The English eye misses 
especially fireplaces and carpets ; the first is supplanted by 
the stove, and the second forbidden by the fleas. In all other 
respects they are nearly alike. The gentlemen bow very for- 
mally, and the ladies never shake hands with gentlemen. 
The housewife visits the kitchen much more than in England, 
and in the general economy and business of the house and 
the family there is much less stiffness than in England. In 
England we are politically freer than other nations, but we 
are socially more custom-bound than any other people. The 



GERMANY; VARIOUS PARTICTL^ES. 445 

slave in Damascus has much, more social liberty than a gen- 
tleman's servant in England. 



Fields. — Here there are no fields. In this respect Germany 
is like the East ; and the Rhine and the Jordan flow into each 
other. The hedgerows of England are wanting, and the fijie 
domestic cattle browsing there. Here you never see the face 
of cow-kind, save in the plough or on the dinner-table ! 
This is a great want in the general aspect of the country. 
"We want to see fields, and herds of cattle browsing, and 
plenty of pigs and sheep ; but we find them not, and we 
hear them not. All nature has a still, dead, tranquil ap- 
pearance. It is not the land of motion, progress, life. I 
believe the donkey does not move his ears so often here as in 
England ! 

Bonn, August 2Qth, 1853. 



446 



THE jews; stumbling. blocks. 



SEPTEMBER. 

I. The Jews ; Stumbling-blocks. II. God is near ! III. A Peep into a 
German Meeting. lY. Faith and Opinions. Y. The Countess of "\Yieland 
— The Blessings of the Bible. YI. What are the Characteristics of the 
Age? Politically: 1. The Yielding of Old Principles; 2. Democracy; 

3. The Turkish Empire; 4. Gog and Magog; 5. The Three Leavens; 
6. The Eeconstructed Image. Ecclesiastically we have : 1. The Mission- 
ary Spuit; 2. The Two Poles or Parties; 3. The Papal Aggression; 

4. The Study of Prophecy. YII. 'E-ra TrvEvjiara, Seven Spirits, YIII. 
'Aya-7/ 70V ILi'sv/daroQ, the Love of the Sj)irit. IX. An Oriental Scene ; 
the Blessings of Polygamy. X. Kara-avaLC, the Piest. XI. The Hebrew 
Language. XII. The Dignity of Human Nature. 



L— THE JEYTS ; STUMBLING-BLOCKS. 

" Do YOU know/' said Mr. He — Id, " what I lieard since I 
last saw you? I was talking about the Messiah and the 

nature of His kingdom, when Captain Gr gaye me some 

new ideas. He is a learned man, has read much, and can 
stand oyer what he says. Now the matter is this. The 
Essenes were a powerful sect among the ancient J ews, and 
Jesus was intimately connected with them. He was in fact 
their teacher and head, and by their means he spread His 
doctrines in the nation. He was, neyertheless, suspected by 
the rulers, condemoied to death, and nailed u23on the cross. 
He did not die, howeyer. His friends were at hand to take 
Him from the cross, and remoye Him for a time into some 
safe retreat, till the weakness and swoon were oyer. He 
continued among his Essene brethren secretly for fear of the 



THE jews; stumbling-blocks. 



447 



Jews, and met now and tlien His disciples to encourage them 
in His good doctrines. The last of these meetings was upon 
Mount Olivet, which was covered at the time with mist and 
clouds, as is often the case. He then left suddenly, and 
retired finally to His secret retreat among the Essenes, and 
this it was which gave origin to the notion of the ascension 
from Mount Olivet. Captain Gr has the ancient docu- 
ments which testify all this, and they are written in the 
Greek or the Syrian language. Tell me, Mr. Graham, can 
this be true?" 

" No ! no ! it is all false," cried I. "I know the whole 
matter. I read the book written upon the subject by an 
unbelieving Jew in Brunswick. Here is my answer : — 
1st. It does not trouble me that an ancient manuscript 
shou.ld be found asserting these things. His enemies 
wrote in Greek and Syriac as well as they now do in 
German and English. I deny that the assertions made 
therein are true. I assert they are in the highest degree un- 
likely and improbable. The certainty of the death of Jesus 
Christ rests on evidence of the strongest kind. The four 
Evangelists assert it, the enemies themselves believed it, his 
heart or the pericardium was pierced by a spear, he lay in the 
grave three days and three nights. In the first ages of Chris- 
tianity there was no tradition among His enemies that He did 
not die, while there was one that He did not rise from the 
dead (Matt, xxviii. 15). The crucifixion was public ; the most 
vigilant murderous enemies were watching Him on the cross, 
His most intimate friends and disciples believed that He died ; 
saw Him actually, as they believed, dead ; they proclaimed 
the fact, and charged the Jews with the murder (Acts vii. 52) ; 
which they could not and did not deny. Indeed, they boasted 
of the fact, as the nation does to the present day. For assert- 
ing the fact of His death and resurrection the disciples sufiered 



448 



GOD IS NEAR ! 



the loss of reputation, property, and many of them life itself, 
so that their conviction of the truth of these facts must have 
been of the very strongest kind. There is in my opinion no 
historical event whatever more certain than that Jesus died. 
We have stronger evidence of it than that ISTapoleon died at 
St. Helena and Wellington at Walmer Castle." 

Jew. — ^'How then do Christians assert such things? 

Captain G is a right good Christian, and at the head of 

his regiment in this town 

"My dear sir," said I, " don't you know there are good 
Christians and bad Christians, as well as good Jews and bad 
Jews ? It is not all gold that glitters. And you Jews who 
show such capacity for resisting evidence which is certainly, 
to say the least of it, very strong, should not show an infantile 
credulity by believing incoherent tales either from Christian 
captains or Syriac manuscripts." 

Jew. — "Our system is hollow and unsatisfactory, and I have 
often some thoughts of leaving it ; Mr. Marks has left us a few 
days ago for Christianity. Was it you who converted him ? 
He is of a very respectable family. It is easier to become a 
Protestant than a CathoKc, for their pictures and images, 
angel- worship and Mariolatry are great stumbling-blocks in 
the way of the Jew. In fact I do not see how a serious Jew can 
ever from principle become a Homan Catholic. My wife is a 
firm fanatical Jewess, otherwise, I and my family would be- 
come Protestants to-morrow. I am persuaded you have the 
best of the argument." 

September 3rcZ, 1853. 



n.— GOD IS NEAE! 

This great truth is but little realised, otherwise our conduct 
would be different from what it is. There may be a mercy 



GOD IS near! 



449 



in it, too, tliat our perceptions of Grod are so dim and cloudy, 
for, in oirr present state, tlie constant full realising of the 
glorious presence of God would be overwlielming. It would 
break up the frail tabernacle, and send us to the grave before 
the time. But we err on the other side ; and instead of the 
assurance of His love and the overflowing fulness of His 
presence, we remain afar ofi", and catch only now and then a 
glimpse of His glory ! This is not as it ought to be. Has 
he not condescended to become our father in Christ Jesus ? 
Is not every barrier between our souls and Him broken down 
in the cross of Calvary ? The veil is rent, the slumber of the 
tomb is broken, the way to the Holiest of all opened up for 
the guiltiest of mankind, and the Holy Spirit the Comforter 
poured out upon all flesh. Dost thou know, brother, what it 
is to walk in love ? what it is to dwell in Grod, and thereby 
dwell in everlasting love ? what it is to be joined to the Lord 
in one spirit ? (1 Cor. vi, 17.) The redeemed soul is privileged 
to approach the great J ehovah, and make all her wants and 
wishes known to Him. Her home is heaven, her father is 
Grod, and her King, Redeemer, and Elder-brother, the Lamb 
of Grod, who hath taken away the sin of the world. Nothing 
so purifies as nearness to God ; the thought of Him, the 
feeling that He is with us, in us, around us^ sanctifies and 
transforms our nature. His greatness makes us great — His 
holiness makes the least sin in us look hateful and unendurable 
— ^His holy love attracts and wins the afiections to Himself. 
Believe that he is near thee — connect all gifts with Him, so 
that every blessing may become an index to point the heart 
to heaven. Live in Him, walk in Him, commune with Him, 
meditate upon Him, lift up the eye to Him ; give Him the 
heart, the voice, the hand, the feet, the affections — every 
faculty of the mind and every fibre of the body. Say, He 



450 A PEEP INTO A GERMAN MEETING. 

gave His Son for me, and all I have is His — His only and 
His for ever. 

September lOtJi, 1853. 



III.— A PEEP INTO A GERMAN MEETING. 

Come along, my friend ; you wished to see something of 
German manners, and now you have a fine opportunity. The 
Society of Citizens meets this evening, and I am going. We 
start, and in a few minutes we are in the assembly. It is a 
mixed multitude, as the name of the society implies, and the 
object is to unite all the citizens, high and low, rich and 
poor, learned and unlearned, into one corporation, for self- 
improvement and benevolent purposes. The entrance costs 
one penny ; the place of meeting is a public house ; the time 
of meeting, every Monday evening at eight o'clock. See, 
there is Professor Sell, a jurist, who edifies often on the subject 
of law and puhlic rights ; here is Professor Von Riese, with 
the long pipe and grizzly beard ; he can only be got to draw 
the pipe out of his mouth when questions of high mathematical 
analysis are before the house. All subjects are discussed 
here. I have heard lectures on the vine and its cultivation, 
on the laws of musical tone, on secret tribunals, on the Grerman 
Empire, and the Crusades ; and I have given several on the 
East myself. The people are all eating at the same time that 
the speaking is going on ; they came there to sup as well as 
to enjoy the intellectual banquet ; but they are very quiet, 
and seem to be all attention. Another pecuKarity of these 
Grerman meetings is the singing. The tables are suppKed 
with song-books, and every now and then they unite in one 



FAITH AND OPINIONS. 451 

of the spirit-stirring patriotic songs of Fatherland. The 
singing is real work, as well as the eating, drinking, and 
lecturing, for the whole heart and soul are thrown into it. 
Immediately after the singing the pipes and cigars are resumed, 
and the house is once more filled with the cloudy incense of 
tobacco. This practice is universal, and you are compelled to 
smoke in self-defence. The Germans are a quiet, sober- 
thinking, easily- governed race, and their societies partake of 
the same characteristics. There is little brilliancy and no wit, 
in one sense of the term, in these meetings ; and the Rhine 
wines which they praise so much cannot bring them up to 
the point of vehement manly debate. 



IV.— FAITH AND OPINIONS. 

Opinions may be learned, explained, and varied by human 
skill ; faith is the gift of God, and may be, and often is, strong 
and vigorous without clearly- defined opinions at all. Your 
reason may see the plan of redemption, and enable you to 
admire and defend it ; faith receives Jesus and His love into 
your heart, and makes His person the one living centre of all 
your joys and hopes. It is not a system of belief or a set 
number of articles which may commend themselves to your 
acceptance, but a personal friend who seeks to bless you, and 
has blessed you — a holy, peaceful, blessed guest, whose love 
has made a way for Him into the chambers of the heart. 
He is still the one object of the soul's adoring love and admi- 
ration ; the hand welcomes Him, the eye is fascinated with 
His beauty, the ear seeks no music but His name, the entire 
soul becomes so transfused and interpenetrated with His 
presence, person, and grace, that neither death nor life can 
separate them any more. This is faith — the faith which 

qg2 



452 



FAITH AND OPINIONS. 



overcomes the world, and becomes brighter and brighter the 
more the darkness sets in and the surging waters swell on 
high — which is strengthened by temptation and victorious 
over death itself. The wind blows opinions away ; faith 
resists and defies the storms. It is not a system, but a person, 
in whom our interests centre ; He is in us the hope of glory. 
The house where He dwells, the temple where He is worshipped, 
the throne where He loves to reign, is the lowly and contrite 
heart. Union with Him is strength — and this faith gives ; 
it unites the weak with the strong, the mortal with the im- 
mortal, the weak, trembling sinner with the Conqueror and 
King at the right hand of Grod. His mighty acts were done 
for thee — the ocean fulness of His love flowed for thee ; 
for thee He left His glory — for thee He tasted the bitterness 
and overcame the sharpness of death — for thee He entered 
the cold grave — and for thee He intercedes in heaven ! Faith 
appropriates all His acts of love and power — all His promises, 
threatenings, and consolations ; searches for Him, and finds 
Him everywhere and in everything ; glories in every touch 
of His hand, every look of His eye, every memorial of His 
past or present working, as new channels of communion 
with Him. 

" Who then shall e'er divide us more 
From Jesus and His love ; 
Or break the sacred chain that binds 
The earth to heaven above ? 

Nor death, nor life, nor earth, nor hell, C ^ ' 

Nor time's destroying sway, ' " * ■ • 

Can e'er efface us from His heart, 
Or make his love decay." 



September IQiJi, 1858. 



THE COUNTESS OF WIELAND. 



453 



v.— THE COUNTESS OF WIELAND. 

"My birth-place is Cologne, the priestly city with its 
splendid Dom, its ecclesiastical memorials, its fine paintings 
from Rubens, its church treasures, its wonderful rehcs, in- 
cluding the magi, or three kings from the East, its cardinal 
bishop, and all the other splendours of dominant Popery. 
I was very deyout. My parents performed the religious 
duties imposed upon them by the religion of their fathers, 
and the least suspicion of imposture or priestcraft would 
have fallen upon, my mind like a wound in the most tender 
part. It was the radiant season of j^outh, and my mind was 
occupied with fetes, ceremonies, and the labours and amuse- 
ments appropriate to the young. The Rhine flowed before 
our door, and the Seven Mountains with the frowning crags 
of Drachenfels, rose up in the distance. Nature seemed to 
unite all her charms on the banks of the silvery Rhine, and 
my heart beat responsive to the pulsations of universal joy. 
The family was a happy one, and so far as earthly happiness 
was concerned there was nothing to be desired. We rejoiced 
too in grace, as well as in the bounties of providence. The 
ancient Church, with its thousand holds on the heart and 
the intellect, was the Church of our fathers, and her decisions 
were unquestioned. She was the sole depository of grace 
upon the earth, and her ministrations alone brought peace, 
salvation into the soul. I felt her sweet attractions, and 
every sense was gratified by the variety and splendour of 
her ministrations. The beauty of her churches, the vest- 
ments of her priests, the majesty of her solemn music, the 
altars of her sacrifices, radiant with gold and silver, and 
surrounded with images of the saints, the stillness of the 
adoring multitudes, the elevation of the host, the music of 



454 



THE COUNTESS OF WIELAND. 



cliiming bells, tlie clouds of ascending incense, the mysterious 
powers of the confessional, where God and the sinner meet ; 
the slow solemn processions through the streets, to the sound 
of military music, where earth and heaven, God and man, 
the lowliness of the saint, and the pride, pomp, and splendour 
of the world seemed to unite ; the long catalogues of saints 
which adorned her history, the multitude of nations and 
kings, whom her vigour has subjugated to the faith ; the 
apostolic zeal of her various orders, which bore them for the 
truth's sake, into all the regions of the habitable globe ; her 
famous kings, warriors, and statesmen ; her holy popes and 
wonder-working apostles ; her antiquity, her sanctitj^, her 
apostolicity, her universality, her inflexible severity, and 
her infallibility ; all these, and a thousand other circumstances, 
ceremonies, and observances, which met me at every turn 
and corner in my daily life, bound my heart to the Catholic 
Church, with many of the strongest cords of which nature 
and grace are capable. There was no reason for doubt, there 
was no time for thought, there was no room left in the soul 
for anything else. There was a charming liberty in the 
stately servitude, for if we were relieved from thinking, we 
were reheved from the anxiety of the future also ; the 
Church took the responsibility of our souls upon herself; 
we might enjoy ourselves to the full satisfaction of our 
natural vanity ; we might revel in all worldly amusements 
and delights ; we might live entirely and only for the 
present world, and yet be sure of the eternal glories of the 
future. The liberty of thought seemed well sold for such 
advantages as these ; it was the only liberty also that we 
were deprived of, for there is not, and there never was, nor 
is there a church on the earth which gives greater liberties 
and indulgences of all kinds to its members, than the 
Church of Eome. Sanctity consists simply in ritualism, 



THE COUNTESS OF WIELAND. 



455 



and the ceremonies being performed all is right. Yet I 
sometimes felt uneasy about the state of things. I certainly 
longed now and then for something better, holier, and 
deeper than formal rites and imposing ceremonies. I had 
heard, indeed, of a Bible, but I had never seen one, nor can 
I say I desired to see one. My doubts were but transient, 
and my affections were so occupied that I had little leisure 
for reflection. In fact, my time, or rather the Lord's time, 
was not come, and in me, as in others. He would show the 
long-suffering of His grace. Blessed be His name that He 
has broken my chains, and showed me the glory of His Son ; 
that He has broken the net of the fowler and set me free ! 
O, how precious is Jesus I How full, how free, how sweet. 
His love ! He is my religion ; His glorious person now fiUs 
the yacant throne in my heart ; and all ceremonies and forms 
have ceased to please. Blessed be His holy name ! O Lamb 
of God, may I love thee better than all others, inasmuch as 
thou hast done more for me than for others. Thou hast 
delivered me from the fatal gulf of formalism, thou hast 
given me thy holy word, yea, thou hast given me thine own 
self ! Thou art mine, 0 Lord, and I delight in thee alone ! 
Thou art my king and my Grod. 

"But I am anticipating, and must return to my story. 
Months rolled on, and I pursued the same course as formerly. 
I was quiet in my mind, and every suspicion concerning the 
Eoman Catholic religion had been banished. I was sitting 
one evening in the midst of my maidens and friends, enjoy- 
ing the sunset on the Rhine, when a young lady called, and, 
breaking into the midst of our circle, said, ' Do you know 
what I have got ? I have found a 'New Testament ;' and 
so saying, she laid it upon the table. It was a Catholic 
translation, and fully authorised by the Church. No mortal 
tongue can teU the influence, the joy, sorrow, love, and 



455 



THE COUNTESS OF WIELAND. 



terror wliicli this incident exercised upon my mind. Here 
was tlie thing I had long looked for. It was authorised by 
the Church, and I determined to read it, be the issue what it 
might. It was the Word of God, and the very foundation 
of the whole Church of Christ. We read it together ; and 
I read it in secret with the greatest avidity, and I could 
not imagine why it should be forbidden. It spoke of the 
dying love of Jesus, and surely the CathoKc Church taught 
the same in her most holy mysteries. It was indeed, to my 
panting soul, like dew upon the parched land. How sweet 
at this hour is the memory of that first love ! 0, there is 
nothing afterwards like it, for it is the beginning of a new 
Kfe — the first step heavenward. There is the freshness of 
novelty, the ardour and anxiety of hope ; there is the 
solemn feeling, too, of the difficulties and dangers to which 
obedience to the Divine will may expose you. Taking it all 
together, this first love is the sweetest, lowliest, boldest, most 
confiding, most joyous, which I have ever known. But a 
Bible cannot make its appearance for many days in a 
Catholic circle without making a noise. The rumour speedily 
went abroad, and in the course of the week a priest called 
to inquire what was the matter, and reclaim the forbidden 
book. I never denied having the book and reading it, and 
I argued with him strongly that the book was good, and 
holy, and authorised by the Catholic Church ; to all which 
he listened patiently, and then simply demanded that I 
should give it up. I could not do this; I refused absolutely; 
and after much persuasion, and many hard words, he went 
away, and I remained divided, distracted, and overwhelmed 
with grief and terror, but with the strong, steady conviction 
that I had done mj duty. Where could I get another ? I 
knew not ; and if the God of Heaven has given it to men 
He will forgive me if I sin in seeking to know His will. 



THE COUNTESS OF WIELAND. 



457 



Besides, I thouglit the priest only wanted to frighten me, 
and that finally I would be indulged with my Bible. If 
reading it was a sin, it was not a mortal one, and the church 
had indulgences and pardons for very heinous sins. I 
therefore resolved, at all hazards, to keep my New Testa- 
ment, and be regular in my attendance in the Catholic 
Church. I would have both my church and my Bible ; but 
Grod saw the thing was impossible, and in his providence he 
brought the matter to a decision. I was sitting in the great 
church of Cologne one Sunday, after the celebration of the 
mass, when the priest came forward and began to address 
the people on the enormity of having and reading forbidden 
books. Every eye was now directed towards me, for the fact 
of my refusing to give up reading the Bible was well known. 
My face turned like scarlet, and I was burning with shame, 
terror, and anger, which, all united, only made me more 
resolute than ever to hold fast my Bible. I came home 
after the service was ended, and I have never entered a Popish 
church since. The priest called the next day to demand the 
Bible, which I refused. He called afterwards to ask why I 
went to church no more, and I replied, ' Grod forbid that 
I should go to your church, or to any church, which forbids 
and prohibits the Bible.' Thus was the net broken, and my 
soul set free. Eighteen of my friends and acquaintances 
left with me, and to this day they are all adorning the 
doctrines of God their Saviour. This was the cause of my 
separation from the Church of Eome. It was not doctrines, 
but the Bible. In fact, I was not at that time convinced 
that the doctrines, ceremonies, and worship of the Papacy 
were false and unscriptural ; and it is by no means impos- 
sible, had they left me my Bible, that I might have been 
still in the Romish Church. They touched, however, the 
most tender point, for nothing could persuade me that it was 



458 



THE COUNTESS OF WIELAND. 



sinful to read the Bible. I now soon saw things in a very- 
different light. The authority of tradition was taken away, 
and the ISTew Testament remained as my only friend and 
instructor. Now I began, not simply to read and enjoy, but 
also to read and compare. I was amazed at the simplicity 
and beauty of the Apostolic Churches — at the folly, pre- 
sumption, and idolatry of the Church of Rome. I found 
nothing of Popes and Cardinals there ; not a word of 
purgatory, image-worship, angel- worship, or Mariolatry ; 
nothing about masses, and sacrifices, and dispensing powers, 
which make up the pomp and splendour of the Romish 
ritual. I could hardly believe my senses that the differences 
between the Word of God and the Papacy were so numerous 
and so enormous. Is the Romish worship idolatrous ? This 
question was forced upon me, and from what I knew of the 
system I was compelled to answer in the affirmative. In 
fact, if the worship of the Virgin be not idolatry, it is not 
easy to find the worship of the creature upon earth. And 
now I have done with my little story, which, indeed, has no 
interest except in so far as it illustrates the principle of 
divine grace.'' 

This statement I took down from the lips of the Countess 
herself, in the presence of the Rev. Ridley Herschell, of 
London, in her own house, in Bonn, September 15th, 1853; 
and it surely illustrates the truth of the well-known lines 
on the 

BLESSINGS OF THE BIBLE. 

Holy Bible, book divine, 

Precious treasure, thou art mine ! 

Mine to tell me whence I came, , 

IX • bollii 

Mine to tell me what I am ; 

Mine to chide me when I rove, 

Mine to show a Saviour's love ! 



THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 



459 



Mine to comfort in distress, 

Mine to lead to happiness. 

Mine to show the Living Faith, 

Mine to bring me peace in death. 

Mine to teach the heavenly road, 

Mine to lead my heart to God ! 

Holy Bible, book divine, 

Precious treasure, thou art mine ! 

Blessed Spirit ! make its page 

My meat and drink from youth to age ! 

September l9tJi, 1853. 



VI.— WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
PRESENT AGE ? 

If we look at tlie age politically, we may easily detect tlie 
following signs : — I. It is a sign of these times, that the 
opinion or will of the many shall no longer, as formerly, be 
controlled by the opinion or will of the few. Old principles 
of power, and reverence, and divine right of rulers, are fading 
fast away from the earth. The theory of Gervinus is true, 
and power is passing out of the hands of the few into those of 
the many. II. This moment seems to be the breathing-time 
of parties — the hour of uniting forces and examining defences, 
before the work of slaughter begins. Democracy r5se up in 
this land, Briareus-like, with a hundred hands, at the call of 
kings, to overthrow the great democrat, the king-dethroner, 
who tyrannised with bloody ascendancy over a prostrate 
world. He fell on the field of Leipsic, and the emancipated 
nations expected liberty and rest. Were these hopes ful- 
filled ? Were the promises made to the insurgent victorious 
democracy fulfilled ? Witness the storms of '48 ; witness the 
state of Italy, Austria, and, in fact, the continental nations 



460 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 

generally. The storms of '48 are blown over, but they are 
gathering strength and impetuosity in the Caves of ^olus ; 
and, when they break out, the tempest will be terrible. The 
nations are discontented, the masses are pervaded with fierce 
opinions and perverse principles, which may gain the upper 
hand and make tyrants and even kings tremble. They have 
half- won the battle already, and they are now waiting for the 
second attack. 

" The cannon are pointed and ready to roar, 
To crash the wall now, they have crumbled before." 

III. Another sign of the times is the state of the Turkish 
Empire. Wise statesmen, who contemplate events in their 
causes and consequences ; travellers and men of the world, 
who note down things simply as they occur ; contemplative 
Christians, who adore the author of Christianity and hate and 
pray for the downfall of the Eastern and Western Antichrist ; 
students of prophecy, who seek to discern the movements of 
Jehovah in the wasting of the Turkish power, the drying up 
of the Euphrates, and the return of the Eastern kings — all 
unite in connecting with the overthrow of the Ottoman 
Empire changes of prodigious magnitude, and they seem all 
to be agreed that its overthrow is near at hand. It is destined 
to come down, but who is to gather the sj)oil ? I contemplate 
the event with terror. One cannon-shot on the Bosphorus 
may set Europe, Asia, and Africa in flames — may unchain 
the spirits of unclean devils like frogs (Hev. xvi. 13 — 16), 
which are destined to gather the kings and the nations of the 
world to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. This 
is a fearful sign of these times. May God help us to be 
diKgent, that no man take our crown. IV. Is it not a 
remarkable sign of the times, that Russia should rise to such 
pre-eminence among the nations? The tradition is very 



THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 461 



general, that this barbaric conquering power is darkly sha- 
dowed forth in Ezekiel xxxix., as the prince of Rosh, Meshech, 
and Tubal. I heard it among the Greeks of Damascus, and 
it is the opinion of many at home. Be this as it may, it is 
an interesting and alarming fact, that this fierce nation of 
semi- civilised warriors should have actually attained the 
supremacy in the direction of European affairs. This is as 
lamentable as it is undeniable, and it is no insignificant token 
of the present evil times. Y. Consider whether the three 
leavens which wrought the overthrow of the Jewish state and 
nation, be not penetrating the populations of Europe and the 
world, and preparing them for some fearful work of blood 
and vengeance. The leaven of Herod is tyranny ; the leaven 
of the Pharisees is superstition; and the leaven of the Sad- 
ducees is infidelity; and these are the very principles now busy 
at work everywhere, trying to gain what they have lost, or 
to stril^e up new alliances. Tyranny is more bare-faced and 
brazen-faced this moment in Europe, than it has been for 
many years ; old wrinkled superstition is painting her harlot 
face anew, and ofiering her wares to the nations with as much 
impudence and pertinacity as if her works of darkness had 
never been discovered ; while infidelity, mocking at both, is 
leavening the masses of society, and preparing beneath temples 
and thrones the volcanic mine, which shall toss them on high 
and shiver them to atoms. Fearfully are these powers work- 
ing, deadly and terrible will be the struggle, when the hostile 
elements come into conflict. These are the parties which now 
contend for the mastery on the field of European policy — the 
abettors of tyranny, the slaves of superstition, and the hosts 
of infidelity ; and, apart from the sure word of prophecy, it is 
hard to say which of them is destined to rule the bloody 
ascendant in the approaching conflict of the nations. One 



462 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 

thing is certain, viz., that the Christian has nothing to fear. 
The twenty-ninth Psalm shows us the Lord sitting on the 
floods, and out of the desolating tempests creating peace for 
His people. It is the same idea which the Christian poet has 
so beautifully expressed: 

" Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, 
The clouds ye so much dread 
Ai-e big with mercy, and shall break 
In blessings on your head." 

The two kingdoms must struggle on till the end come ; 
the Cains and the Abels, the J acobs and the Esaus, the Sauls 
and the Davids, the Christs and the Anti-christs, h^ve 
maintained the warfare in all ages, and it will only wax 
fiercer and hotter as the hour of decision approaches, when 
the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the 
dominion, shall be given unto the people of the most High, 
yi. The image of Daniel (ii.) was for centuries mutilated 
and broken ; the belly and thighs of brass were no more to 
be found, while Greece was swallowed up in the Ottoman 
Empire, but the great image stands complete, when the 
stone cut without hands smites it (Dan. ii. 45) ; and therefore 
Greece has at the appointed time won its independence, and 
the reconstituted image reappears in its full dimensions, as 
the symbol of Gentile rule, ready for the stroke of vengeance, 
which shall clear the way for the universal kingdom, which 
the God of heaven shall set up never to be destroyed (Dan. 
ii. 44). This is a sign of these times, and would seem to 
indicate that the end is approaching. When shall the 
image fall ? when shall the kingdom come ? Be ye always 
ready, seeing ye know not the day nor the hour when the 
Son of Man cometh. 



THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 



463 



" Jesus! thy church, with longing eyes, 
For thine expected coming waits ; 
When will the promised light arise, 
And glory beam from Zion's gates ? 

Teach us in watchfulness and prayer. 
To wait for the appointed hour ; 
And fit us, by thy grace, to share 
The triumphs of thy conquering power." 

Let US now cast a glance over the field of the world, and 
obserye tlie religious tendencies and operations which, are 
found there, and surely the first sign of the times in a 
religious point of view, is — I. The missionary spirit. This 
principle is not new : it is as old as the Apostles, who 
abandoned every thing for the love of God ; as old as Abra- 
ham, who left house, and kindred, and friends, for the word 
of God ; it is as the eternal Son of the Father, whose delights 
were with the sons of men from everlasting, and who- in the 
fulness of time came to seek and to save that which was 
lost. This spirit of love is immortal, yet does it not always 
retain the same freshness and vigour. Deus habet horas et 
moras " — the times and the seasons are in the hand of God. 
This fervent spirit of love visited the world in the apostolic 
ages, and the result was the overthrow of paganism, the 
ruin of empires, and the establishment of the kingdom of 
righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. There 
was wild work in those days, fierce hatred of the truth, 
mortal conflict between light and darkness, most cruel, mur- 
derous persecution of the saints of God — their heads were 
chopped ofi" like straw under the knife, the wild beasts were 
satiated with their living prey, the theatres of the Eoman 
Empire ran blood, and the Imperial Dragon was drunk with 
the blood of the saints. The martyr-church conquered; 
the city of the nations fell, and Christianity, strong and 



464 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 

triumpliant, ascended with firm step the throne of the Caesars, 
The spirit of love yielded to the spirit of the world, and in 
the course of centuries the old Apostolic Church of martyrs, 
by means of worldly ambition, by means of subtle, disputa- 
tions, and internal divisions, became disrobed of her priroitivje 
glories, and settled down under the astrictions of a sacramental 
ritualism. Her hands were bound, the Philistines /^,ere 
upon her, her blood was cooling fast, but ^tilji he^r/JifjD j^^s, 
in her — she was not dead but sleeping. The morning gales 
of the Reformation awoke her ; and, like the strong man in 
the prison, her hair began to grow again, and she found, 
herself possessed again of the seven locks of her strength. 
She could remain bound no longer ; the astrictions of the 
Papacy broke, and the temple of Dagon fell. This was her 
renewal like the eagle, and she rejoiced for a time in the 
martyr, world-renouncing, flesh- crucifying spirit which had 
distinguished the Apostolic ages. But she yielded, as the 
ancient Church had done, to the seductions of the world which, 
like Delilah, rocked her asleep on the lap of kings and 
earthly rulers, and filled her with a deep and almost deadly 
soporific. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries she 
lay like a consumptive maiden, living indeed, but death-like, 
pale as a lily, and staggering at every step as soon as she 
attempted to rise up and walk. Blessed be Grod, it is other- 
wise with her now, and the grace of the Lord has filled hePj- 
with the remembrance of her first love ; the consumptive 
paleness has changed into the ruddy hue of health, and her ^ 
weak staggering faith hath grown into that confidence in^ 
Jehovah's promises, which conquers all difficulties, believes 
all things possible with God, and is not careful to answer^ 
the matter before conquerors and kings. It is the old spirit 
of love, the old apostolic spirit of love to God and man, 
which is now visiting the nation once more — strengthening 



THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AOE. 46-3 

wliat is weak, restoring the prodigals to their father, and 
pouring oil and wine into the wounds of the plimdered and 
bleeding Samaritans of the world. Go on, ye swift mes- 
sengers, and deliver your messages of Divine love ! proclaim 
it upon the house-tops, whisper it into bruised and bleeding 
hearts, tell it to the ear of every sinful creature — the tale 
of His love to the unloving, the message of His mercy to the 
unthankful and the unkind ! 0, bring oil from the sanctuary, 
keep up the fire of Divine love, imtil the fiery baptism of the 
fire-baptiser shall have purified and blessed all the nations 
of the world I 

" Hark ! the distant isles proclaim 
Glory to Messiah's name ; 
Hymns of praise, unheard before, 
Echo from the farthest shore. 

Let tlie messengers of peace 
Raise their voice, and never cease, 
Till the world from sin made free, 
Shall unite to worship Tliee." 

II. The next ecclesiastical sign of the times may be called 
the two poles, or the two parties into which all Christendom 
is dividing. Former distinctions are becoming more and 
more indistinct, and the ancient theological landmarks which 
distinguished nations and churches, are being obliterated like 
sand-wrinldes before the rising tide. Shall the Word of 
God rule tradition, or shall tradition rule the "Word of God ? 
That is the question, and the two bands who answer it difier- 
ently are taking their ground — the Sacramentarians and the 
Apostolicals, the Traditionists and the Biblicals, the works- 
men and the faith-men, the men whose watchwords are, the 
Church," "Apostolical Succession," " Litiu^gical Services," 
and the men who rally round the Bible, justification by faith, 

H H 



466 THE CHAllACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 



and personal love to tlie crucified Redeemer — tliese are really 
the parties between whom the battle is to be waged, and the 
warfare premises to be fierce and long. England, Germany, 
the world is divided by this fundamental question ; and, till 
it be settled, it may be well for us to pass by minor ones in 
silence. We should husband our strength for the main 
attack, and then show ourselves to be good soldiers in the 
army of Christ. >5li39v^ iud ^is-gxro'iia '^jm ■ 

: .." Sed timoris omnis expers bbmrn 
Ih- .-^i ea-iwJ-- firmus Inter arm a 



^ - , r-r ,Nec timebo vuluera, 
(I TO yoiJiedil eii T , , . . 

>Jon morabor nostis iras 



fii .bjrfyi 



Nou timebo jmblicasve, 
Calliclasve machinas." 'Off/l'l^ bicfi 

III. We may surely reckon the revival of the Papal life and 
pretensions as another sign of these times. Indeed, this fact 
may well be considered as one of the strangest, if not the 
strangest, most inexplicable phenomenon of the age. Ob- 
serve the following facts, and explain them if you can. An 
old cowardly priest in Rome, who flees from his capital and 
then treats his children to a shower of cannon balls, who 
dare not miguarded show his face in the streets of his own 
cities, 5^et ventures to appoint his ambassadors and publish 
his decrees in the potent nation of England, as if he were, 
indeed, the Yicar of Christ and tlie ruler of the habitable 
globe ! Their relics are presented to the people as in the 
days of old ; the devil's market in the trafiic of masses for 
the dead, in order to extract money from the living, is (xpemd. 
publicly in our streets ; numbers of the learned and educated 
among the English clergy have gone over to the Papacy,: and 
seem to rejoice in believing her most accursed abominatioiis. 
Her miracles, her money-masses, and her idolati^ou^jeMtwre- 



THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESEXT AGE. 467 

worship, tliej^ liaye found no difficulty in swallowing, while 
Paul's doctrines of grace are too strong for their sickly 
stomachs ! Perhaps the easiest explanation is to look at the 
few sedentary recluses who have become Papists, and the 
thousands of active men v/ho have become Mormonites, and 
say^ There are fools and fanatics in every state of society, and 
the best way of treating them is to let them alone. Yet the 
Papacy is not growing stronger, but weaker ; and the late 
movements in the Roman Catholic world seem to prove to all 
minds what, indeed, should have req^uired not proof to any — 
viz., that the Papal system is essentially adverse to all human 
progress, and irreconcileably opposed to the liberties of man- 
kind. By and by, there will be wild work in Austria, Italy, 
and France ! 

IV. I look upon the study of prophecy as another remark- 
able sign of the times. I do not refer now to any particular 
systems or theories on the subject, but to the fact that the 
mind of the Church is directed to the future. This is never 
the case when the Church is slumbering in cold and carnal 
security. All the times of awakening and refreshing from 
the presence of the Lord have been characterized by the 
stud}^ of the prophetic word. This is natural. When we 
are content with the present, we do not trouble ourselves 
about the future ; when we feel satisfied with our fields and 
our merchandize, and our earthly habitations, we make but 
little inquiry about the heavenly inheritance and the many- 
mansioned house of our Father above. This study leads the 
mind to God, and you are compelled to contemplate Him as 
the living, active, working Creator, to whose will, all times, 
events, persons, and dispensations are subordinated, who 
Ordains, guides, and over-rules the affairs of the universe to 
His- own gior}^ and His people's good. It is the glorious 
peculiarity of man that he sliould hope, and to gratify that 

H H 2 



THE CHAHACTEIIISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 



longing implanted by tlie Creator's hand, prophecy opens up 
the glories of life and immortality. The weary Church looks 
into the prophetic ]3age for rest ; the suffering, persecuted, 
martyr Church, for deliverance and recompense, when the 
day of vengeance comes. What are the consolations of the 
Church of God under the long tyranny of Antichrist ? The 
prophetic word, whereby we are assured that wickedness, 
persecution, and bloody treason against God and His saints, 
shall not flourish over the earth for ever ; that Babylon, the 
city of Satan's pride, in which the imperious harlot offered 
all her wares for sale to the kings of the earth, which her 
sorceries had intoxicated (Rev. xviii.), shall sink like a mill- 
stone into the depth of the sea a^midst the hallelujahs of a 
jubilant and emancipated world ! that the beast, and the false 
prophet, and the dragon from the sea — tyranny, superstition, 
and infidelity — the leaven of Herod, the leaven of the Pha- 
risees, and the leaven of the Sadducees — every enemy in fact 
which from the beginning to the end has troubled the well- 
being of His ransomed people, shall perish in His wrath and 
indignation for ever ! Oh ! the eye that looks to the sure word 
of prophecy, can discern over the turbulent and sin-stricken 
earth, a calm and cerulean heaven, where a thousand stars 
of hope awaken in the believing heart the conviction of a 
bright and glorious future. It is a good sign of the present 
Church in England that her prophetic aspirations haveifeeieii. 
kindled, and her expectation directed to the kingdom and 
coming of the Lord. In Germany, also, the more serious- 
minded people are turning their minds to the subject of 
prophecy. Let us then join together with all the saints of 
God in longing for the fulfilment of His gracious promises. 
May our breathing prayer ever be "Thy kingdom come," 
and our lives the answer to the cry, "Thy will be done on 
earth as it is in heaven." -"^ d-jLZJt. 



THE SEVEN SPIRITS. 



469 



■ jXJ enoqo V0'JiicjV>> ^ore your suns descending, ■gnvi>noi 

■iool shuuk^ ^^^^^^ ^« ^^^A. eoiiol^ -fil i 

, , But your griefs for ever ending, ' 

■ . ^ Find eternal noon m me ; 

j Xf'jxly/ ^ ,oyif',^^^ gj^^jl ^.-gg^ shining o'er you, 

afi "to ftifoiiBloaii< Change to day the gloom of night; 
> dT IgiarlDi JiHe, the Lord, shall be your glory,: , ; , . ; ., , , , , i 

--.89fif)9y[orw ,t r;f[ , God your everlasting light." . Jtk w oijejIqo'Ki 
'^^Jfieml}er 20m, 18bd. "^n^^ fiosija^i ^(;i)ooId Lxiii .iioitooes'foq 
'iij ^lol^d^eL jjjiiJ ; 'lyy^ 'xo'i xlixBs yilt lavo Haixt/oii toxi Ujjxi' 
;/3'i9fto dol'iijxl ajjohsqxax oxft ifnfrl - ' •• v -VxriB^ 'lo '^ii--. 

''^fcifel2^l^,jfca;*fii? SeVeN spirits. -BEv'irs:^ 

Seven is tlie number of perfection. The world was created 
in six days ; and, on tlie seventh^ the new complete creation 
enjoyed tlie blessing of God. This idea of fulness and per- 
fection connected with seven seems to be uni^^ersal, and can 
be traced only to the miiversal tradition of the creation and 
its oiigin. The rest was the seventh day, the year of release 
the seventh y€!ar, 7 times 7 are 49, which brought the year of 
Jubilee. The great offering of the Lamb of God was typified 
by the sacrifice of seven lambs (Nximbers xxviii. 19, &c.) ; 
the perfect purification was by sprinkling the blood seven 
times (Lev. iv. 6) ; Hezekiah consecrated the polluted temple 
by the sacrifice of a series of sevens (2 Chron. xxix. 31) ; 
.complete revenge is sevenfold vengeance (Gen. iv. 24) ; and a 
perfectly .heated furnace is seven times hotter than usual 
(Dan. iii. 19),. .Hence, the same idea is expressed in the 
punishnients of the Lord : ^'I will chastise you sevenfold for 
your sins" (Lev. xxvi. 38). Compare Exodus vii.2o ; 2 Samuel 
x?.iv,, 13 ; xii. 18. So the impure require sevoi days' purifi- 
ca3bif)ji; befpre. .they could enter the sanctuary, and the mourn- 
ing, .for the dead lasted seven days (Gen. 1. 10) ; fasting seven 
days (1 Sam. xxxi. 13) ; seven locks of hair (Judges xvi. 19)^^ 



^t'o the seven spirits. 

The leper must wash seven times in the Jordan (2 Kings 
V. 10) ; the seventh ends the captivity and the labour (Lev. 
xii. 2, &c.) ; and on the seventh day at the seventh blast, and 
when encompassed seven times by seven priests, the walls of 
Jericho fell (Jos. vi. 3). Enoch, the seventh patriarch, was 
translated ; the altar was consecrated seven days (Ex. xxix) ; 
j)erfectly purified silver is seven times refined (Psalm xii. 6). 
The Orientals, at the present time, speak of the seven king- 
doms of Frankland, meaning the entire West. Indeed this 
number is the complete and constant symbol of perfection, 
both among the ancient and modern Orientals. This explains 
the lir-a TTi'cVjiuira, the seven spirits of Grod — the one complete 
perfect, all-sufficient Holy Ghost, in whom and from whom 
we have all things. The glorious, all-perfect Spirit, und^r the 
symbol of seven, is placed between the Father and the Son, 
as with them the common object of our prayers and adofatibAs 
(Rev. i. 5). Indeed the book of Hevelation abbiiiids ' 4Ae 
symbolical use of the number seven. We have mention' nidde 
of seven chuTches, seven angels, seven candlesticks, seven ^ndt^, 
seven plagues, seven vials, seven trumpets, seven h.ea.^^lh'e^hi 
hills, and many others, all including in the symbol the fulness 
and completeness of the objects referred to. This, then, is no 
barren speculation, brother, but a great and glorious truth, 
which ought to gladden the hearts of all believers. The seven- 
fold fulness of the Comforter — the immeasurable ocean- depths 
of the eternal life of God, are laid up for you in Christ Jesus, 
and the poorest, neediest creature may come and take of the 
waters of life freely ; he may share the fulness 'of^'th^^SSi'^^n 
spirits of G6d. Come, thto, to J esus, and yoii sHall testis 'the 
streams that make glad the city of God. ' You ' need' his 
presence, for without Him your vows and prayers^ are^ but 
lip- work, and can never reach the pr^seSce 5f ' thd 'L(^W^"of 
SWbaoth. ' on J o; tfji GJ 56TB9I0 Lflfi hsi^jsawnu 



BY THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT I 



47.1 



" Come, Holy Gbost, Creator, come, 
And visit all the souls of thine, 
Thou hast inspired our hearts with life ; 
Inspire them now with life divine." 

Septemher 2it7i, 1853. 

IX — Ata tT]Q ayd-Kr]QTOv livivjj.aroQ ! — Raji. srvv;'3!0.r-r> /^r 
BY THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT 

This genitive may mean tlie love wliicli the Spirit bears to 
us, or our love to him. It is highly probable the first is the 
true application here. It is the love which the Holy Grhost 
sheds abroad in our hearts, which he kindles in the souls of 
believers, and which is nothing but an echo of His eternal 
love to us. Our love to Him is the result of His love to us. 
He breathes into us his own fervent life and desires, so that 
we seek ever nearer and fuller communion with God. How 
deep must his love to us be ! He finds us ignorant, and He 
teaches us (J ohn xiv. 26) ; He finds us forgetful, and He 
brings all things to our remembrance (John xiv. 26) ; He 
finds the evidences of our love fading, and He testifies of Jesus 
(John XV. 26) ; we defile the conscience, and sully the white 
robes of our righteousness, and He, in his mercy and love, 
reproves us (J ohn xvi. 8) ; we often wander lil^e pilgrims in 
a trackless wilderness, and He then condescends to be our 
guide (John xvi. 13); He reveals to our longing eyes the 
\ ftglories of the future (John xvi. 13); and remains in us, and 
with, us, till He glorifies the Eedeemer in our eternal salva- 
tion (John XA^. 14). Is not this love, inconceivable to poor 
perishing worms of the dust ? He sees all, and yet bears 
Avith all our waywardness, forgetfulness, and sins. His love 
is unwearied and cleaves to us to the last. We provoke Him, 



i72.: BY THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT 'I' 

grieve Him, resist Him, quench the kindlings of His love, 
refuse to hear and obey His voice, and too often, alas, give 
His throne and temple to a stranger ! Yet He leaves us not, 
but ever seeks, by gentle intreaty and winning love, to wean 
us from the world to God. 0 most holy, blessed Comforter ! 
how the heart expands under the shadow of thy wings ; how 
the bonds of sin and death relax at thy touch, 0 thou eternal. 
Life- giver, the hope of the weary, the solace of the distressed, 
and the comforter of all that mourn ! How my soul longs 
for Thee — for Thee alone, 0 my God, my life and the joy of 
my immortal hopes. Fill my heart with Di^dne love, burn 
away all roots of bitterness in the baptism of fire ; give me, 
0 Eternal Spirit of the Father and the Son, the factory over 
every spiritual enem}'', and a name and a place among the 
saints of God. 



" Lava quod est sordidum 
Riga quod est ariduDi 
Sana quod est saueium. 

Flecte quod est rigidum 
Fove quod est frigidum, 
Rege quod est devium. 

Da tiiis fidelibus, 
In. te confidentibus. 
Sacrum. Sej)tenariinn. 

Da virtutis meritiim, 
Da sakitis exitum, 
Da perenne gaudiiim." 

What is impure purify, 
Whsbt is barren fructiiy, 
What is wounded mollify. 

What is rigid rectify, 
What is barren fructify, 
What is erring edify. 



.luii:Kj[U Olii 0.} 
' tK 19X9if3[ 

. .rlqilivJ eiit 
, ii:.ml7f '^iio iJ— 
. an mo'ii gsgl't 
irft jfi g9Ba9a8oq 



THE BLESSINGS OF rOLYGAMYC' 



(SYoI ^iH "k) -^'iiii i ' Those tliat trust Thee faithfully, " ' -/ahg 

9vrg ,aiik ^fiofio : -I^^st on Thee confidingly, .A,,-- 
ton ■P'-t''-f ->[ ' TT ^® SiDirit ahundantly. 

; f i : . Let u s serve Thee valiantly, 'XSTO ^ jk! 

! lotioli!' Let us die triumphantly, biKrn bdi mo'ii en 

wofT ;e^ii.;./ , ^^^^eusjoy eternall;^,^ ..^ > r .^qiI 

^ij>±ii:7jo jjy-iLJ - J{,einige was unrein war, 

.hesSQ^Isib odl'io peuchte was der Leuchte bar, .'-^^^ 

a^fiol IiJO« vm W" Heile was verwundet war. _jj'iOiiiiu;-> jiLJ BnB 

to Tor edj ba^i y , . , jdT -idi—oedT lol 

^ Biege was unbeugsam ist, . 

fnnd ,oyoI orrr.r^. Warme was der Warme misstP^ feomifti yni 
' • ' Weise was des AVegs vergisst. a^oo'l lis \a'/n. 

Deine sieben Gaben gieb , , . 

.-UJ ^ixy i .: Ihm, der werth dich hielt und lieb,^ \^ ^ ^ 

Dir vertrauend treu verblieb. ^^"^ '^'^ 

Gieb der Tugend Lohn zur Zeit, 
Gieb im Tode L^eudigkeit, 
Gieb uns Heil in Ewigkeit." 

September 26th, 1858. 

________ "ift Q^aii 



X.— AN ORIENTAL SCENE— THE BLESSINGS OF POLYGAMY. 

The 2:)lace is tlie Iioly city of Damascus, famous, according 
to the opinion of the natives, as aflPording the best air, the 
best water, and the best food in the world — the city of 
Eliezer at the time of Abraham, 3,774 years ago — the city of 
the caliphs, ruling over a larger empire than that of Augustus 
— a city which, sacked, and spoiled, spoiled and sacked, always 
rises from its ruins phoenix-like, as vigorous as before, and 
possesses at the present time 100,000 souls. Enter — the 
streets are narrow, dusty, crooked, and filled with lank. 



THE ELESSIXGS 0¥ TOLYGAMY. 



howliiig, hungr}^ dogs ; the sun is shedding forth his noon-daj^ 
splendours from his flaming meridian ; the innumerable foun- 
tains in the streets^ in the courts, and in the rooms are lulling 
you to softness and repose 's^'ith their gentle murmurs ; the 
sky is serene and cloudless, reminding of the fine Scripture 
expression, The body of heaTon in its pureness ;" while the 
wild piercing cry of Muezzin, telling the hour and inviting 
to prayer, proclaims the triumphs of the Crescent and the 
doctrines of Islam. There is a strange quiet and inactivity 
everywhere ; no carriages rolling along the streets, no rattling 
of machinery, no crowds of busy bustling men hastening to 
and fro as in our large to\^TLS. It seems a city of the dead, 
but yet the people are alive. Xnock at that respectable- 
looking door, and let us take a peep at the interior of the 
building. It belongs to a wealthy Moslem, and shows you a 
good specimen of the barbaric splendour in which extremes, 
inconsistencies, and contradictions are all blended together. 
Out of silver vessels you will eat rice with your fingers ; 
turbans and gii^dles that cost one hundred pounds each you 
will see on bare-footed gentlemen of the East ; costly fur- 
niture, flo^ving fountains, lofty ceilings, stately solemn personal 
deportment, strangely commingled with dirt and pollution of 
all kinds, with extreme ignorance and intolerable assumptions 
of superiority. Enter the house. What is this ? There is 
strange confusion in the splendid mansion, and it seems as if 
the Oriental life as well as oiu^ own had its troubles. The 
whole scene reminds one of an Irish you; and was originated 
in the follo^ving way. Four wives Kve in the house, and they 
have all families. The children come together in the common 
court, and after playing awhile, they begin to fight; then 
the mothers come and take the part of theii' children, which 
adds not a little- tD the confusion. Shortly aft-er the female 
^slaves join in the tumult, and with shouting and j^elHng, 



KEST. 



475 



ati^iiielit 'tile A^eliemence of tlie broil ; tlien, lastly, a few 
eiiriuclis raise their sweet voices (the eumich's voice is the 
sweetest in the world — the Pope's choir, they say, raust be 
eunuchs) in the midst of the uproar, and the picture of the 
four- wived Mohammedan's domestic happiness is complete ! 
He enters ; his gait is portly, his look is haughty and com- 
manding, his word should prevail as la.w ; but no — ^he can 
make neither head nor tail of the matter — the diversity and 
vehemence of their mutual clamours and accusations bewilder 
him, and he cannot even get a hearing. He retires slowly 
from the scene of contention and claps his hands for his 
attendant slave — " Jacob, bring me a pipe ; there is no use 
in interference ; let them fight it out among themselves. 
Grod has created them from a crooked rib.'' So saying he 
reclines on the divan, and enjoys his pipe and coffee as if 
nothing had occurred. Such are the blessings of polygamy. 

■roy dibr 9' ~^.;Ov . ^' nrO 

XL — Kara7ray(7tc, REST. — Heb. iv. 1. 

Carlyle says somewhere that the sum total of history, man, 
and indeed the whole creation, is nothing but an infinite con- 
jngation of the verb to do ! It is true that motion is the law 
of the imiverse, and change the condition of all save the 
, Living One, who fainteth not, neither is weary. The Scripture 
•enlarges and illustrates the quaint sajdng of the philosopher, 
The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together 
\ X^titil iiow'' (Rom. viii. 32) . There is both action and sufiering. 
r^he labour of the sin -oppressed world ends in groans and 
ffenging desires to be delivered from the bondage of corruption. 
'lAind I am a part of this labouring, groaning, hoping creation, 
( ^^fcM^ giii! h'as disrobed of its beauty and sown with the ashes 
.■^d|*^)fr{ijJtion and deeayi feel myself borne on in the 



KEST. 



current of the immense and irresistible AU — an air-bubble 
moying on the eternal ocean of the boundless and bottomless 
profound, with little love and less faitb to enable me to realisef 
the footsteps of an all-pervading Deity. Is this to continue 
for ever ? Shall sin continue to mar the glory of God for 
ever, and death for ever fatten on the spoils of the dismantled 
temj)le of God ? Shall night, and not day, gain the ascen- 
dancy, and the enemy of our race breathe forth his poison 
oyer the creatures of God for eyer ? "When shall the groaning 
cease ? or shall it eyer cease ? Yes, for the promise is, " There 
remaiiieth, therefore, a rest for the people of God." This 
seems to be y^hat we need ; it is the rest of the reneyed 
human nature in God, y^here the faculties and functions find 
their endless deyelopment in the fulness of the Diyine glory. 
There is in our present state the ayful curse of yanity and 
emj)tiness, which corrodes the heart alike in acquisition and 
enjoyment — alike in poverty, competence, and splendour — 
which makes Alexander weej), sends Diogenes into his tub, 
induces the great Oriental monarch to cry out, " Yanity of 
yanities, all is vanity and vexation of spirit " — ^which made 
the great emperor lay aside his crown and sceptre for a rosary 
and a cell, i^ow I take rest in the sense not of repose, but 
satisfaction ; not in the sense of sonmolent ecstacy, but noble 
self-satisfying activities in the service of the Lord, where the 
stings of conscience and the bitterness of disappointed hopes 
shall be unknown — not a rest which extinguishes expectation 
and desire, but a rest which makes the hope and the things 
hoped for, the present and the future^ a mirror in which the 
holy will of God is contemplated and enjoyed, . How the soul 
longs for this rest ! It would leave Egypt and the fui-naces 
of the tyi-ant king, and, on a word of God resting, venture 
into the waste howling wilderness to enjoy the enchanting 
hope of rest. 0 my God, I turn to thee for rest — the merciful, 



THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. 



t3ie ■ lo-v^ing, the compassionate Father, in whose bosom the 
prodigal soul can repose in peace I Hide me there, O my 
God ! imder the shadow of thy wings let me repose in thq 
day of recompense for the controversy of Zion. ?.qotB.Wt edt 

r, 1' Lord, I believe a rest remains, . jiigl) 

To all thy people known ; ^ ^^^^ 

, , A rest where pure euioyment reigns, ^ - ^ 

iosioqfcj:' . - ^ \ it .b/ir> ,yo^fiJ■ 

'^ And tliou art loved alone : 

: ■•^JT ' A rest where all onr soul's desire .. . - ; , . 

Is fixed on things above; ' tOfrffifcroT 

Where fear, and sin, and grief expire, 
Cast out by perfect love." 

September mil, 1853. 
;t.B vlrrn 

-TlroBnoin- 

. , ^ . XII.— THE HEBKEW LANGUAGE. 

The more I know of that venerable language the more I 
liikef it. I do not sjoeak now as a critic, nor as a philologist ; 
but as a man of taste and feeling to whom the Hebrew Bible 
has become so familiar that I can enjoy its beauties without 
much eflPort. The schoolboy seeks only the sense of the classics, 
and, speaking generally, the perception of the beautiful 
vanishes in the struggle to make out the meaning. How 
different it is when you have mastered a language ! Then 
the i^^al enjoyment begins, and the mind, imoccupied with 
minor concerns, glides tranquilly along the current of thought, 
which it follows in all its windings, sometimes placid as a 
lake, sometimes wild and noisy as a cataract, now clear, deep, 
and transparent, then turbid and precipitous. The mere 
antiquarian should admire and verierate tHe Hebrew language ,* 
it is the^ oldest and most precious relic of antiquity remaiii' 



47:8 



THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. 



ing on the earth, in which we converse with the' her6e8yiipira*) 
phets, and fathers of ancient dispensations; to the liiig'iii'st 
and philologist it is of infinite importance, as giving yon. the 
roots, forms, and structure of the most ancieliti languaigeuin- 
the world. He can trace many of these roots east, westy 
ndrth, and south, in the different dialects of mankind ; and it 
is no small source of pleasure and amusement to trace the 
various changes of form and signification which time, variet}^ 
of dialect, nationalities, political institutions, &c., have given 
to the original stem. It is not true, it is a great fictionj that 
the various classes of languages, such as the Shemitish, the 
Indo-Grermanic, &c., are so walled off from each other that there 
can be no communion among them. I will undertake to fad 
you Hebrew roots, and that not one here and there, but many 
and important, in every known language of the East and 
"West. Q-esenius latterly gave up the idea of a few solitary 
and exclusive families of lano^uag-es, and jN^ork and others 
have pushed their discoveries much farther since his time. 
But to the Jew, the Mohammedan, and the Christian, . the 
Hebrew is still more interesting, as being the ancient' and 
earliest language of inspiration. It is the holy language it 
was used in the sacred books ; the law of the ten words v/as 
written in it by the finger of God Himself ; from Sinai the 
voice of the Living One was heard in that language by the 
adoring, trembling multitudes of Israel ; and in it we see the 
starting point and original source of the languages and 
literatures of the human race. How interesting the thought 
that the inspired record should be the fountain not only of 
the religious ideas and sentim.ents, but also of ithe= languages, 
the literature, and the legislation of all ci-\alised nations ! ^ It 
was so in the beginning and is so still. Within the last 
fifty years the has made us acquainted with more j lan- 
guages, created more grammars, glossaries, and dictionaries, 



THE DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE. 4i:t^. 

extended more, and exercised a greater infliience over, the 
civilisation of mankind, than all the classic literature of the 
historical nations since the beginning of the world ! It is 
strange the Hebrew language is so little studied in Englund, 
where veneration for the word of Gfod prevails, and where 
multitudes apply themselves to the study of prophecy, while, 
in. Germany, the mere love of Kterature has carried that 
plodding nation far before us in all that refers to the language 
and criticism of the Old Testamuent. It is a lamentable fact 
that few, except clergymen, ever thinli of studying Hebrew, 
and still more lamentable that after the college course is over, 
few even of these cultivate their acquaintance with it. We 
treat it as a barrier in our way, and the sooner we get over it, 
and the less we return to it afterwards, the better ! For my 
own part, I must say that in meditation, and in prayer, in 
preaching the word, and in exhorting sinners to be reconciled 
to Gfod, I have ever found my best preparation in my ac- 
quaintance with the Hebrew Scriptures. The heart seems 
warmed and elevated by a feeling of a certain holy nearness 
to God while you read His will in His own language, and you 
carry some of the freshness and fervour with you in your 
ministrations to the people. 

September 2Sth, 185;). 

Xtn.— THE DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE. 

You quote me as proofs of the nobility and dignity of the 
human race those heroes, worthies, and sages who have de- 
fended the right with their swords, illustrated virtue by their 
writings, and exemplified it in their lives, l^ou are right. 
The faculties of man are wonderful, and his capacities im- 



480 



THE DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATLTIE. 



mense. His bodily structure, the noblest and most beautiful 
of God's material works, is but the casket in vrliich. the pre- 
cious jewel is set, and both taken togetlier, be is nothing less 
than an abridgment of the universe, harmonizing the mate- 
rial and spiritual worlds — a s^Tiopsis of the creation in which, 
as in a mirror, the glories of the godhead shall shine forth 
efiulgently for ever. I agree with you fully as to the worth 
and dignity of the human soul, and, while admitting all your 
groimds for it, I see others of a still nobler kind, which, if 
true and substantial, cast all minor considerations in the 
shade. Incarnation is the foimdation on which I seek to rest 
the dignity of our race. In this all-glorious fact I attain an 
eleyation which dazzles the eye of Hope, and makes the ima- 
gination itself giddy. You behold him as the hero of history ; 
I see him as the centre of the Divine administration ; — you 
contemplate him as the high-priest and interpreter of nature ; 
I as the image and revealer of God ; — in your eyes he is the 
potentate and ruler of the lower world ; I see him elevated to 
the throne of heaven ; — your ideal is the Divine man of ima- 
gination, in whom you centre all su^^posed and supposable 
excellencies ; mine is the Divine man of fact, the God-man in 
whom sin is obliterated, death abolished, and the frail human 
nature is united and interpenetrated with the glories of the 
Godliead. Here is a giddy height for you, brother ; yom- 
philosophical footing fails you here, and you must borrow the 
telescope of faith to scan the illimitable, immeasurable heights 
of glory which rise up before us in the boimdless eternity. 
Divine mercy has interfered on our behalf ; the God of the 
universe has dispensed grace to the fallen, and it is in keep- 
ing with His character and attributes that our elevation and 
glory should bear some proportion to the expenditure of His 
love. Thinlv of the Son of God in the bosom of the Father 
before the worlds, and see Him now clothed with our nature, 



THE DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATUIIE. 



4S1 



in the loatlisoine stable, tlie accursed cross, in tlie lonely 
grave. Is tliis a fact ? then, indeed, is the human race a 
reality and not a mere accident ; not a shadow, but a sub- 
stance, which enters into and influences both time and 
eternity. Yet this amazing descent of the Son of God is but 
a segment of the circle of Divine love. It reveals not the full 
orb of the Sun of righteousness, but only the eclipse of his 
meridian splendour. See how the grave yields its prey to the 
mighty ; and the rising, ascending Eedeemer enthrones our 
emancipated nature in the glories of the eternal throne ! 
This is our real dignity, and in comparison with this every- 
thing else is insignificant. Our nature is upon the throne of 
the most high God in heaven ! Such is the Divine will ; that 
man should stand at the head of the universe ; and that all his 
dignity, here and hereafter, should arise out of the fountain of 
redeeming love. 

September mli, 1853. 



1 1 



482 



WLIE ON THE PArACY. 



OCTOBER. 

I. AVylie on tlie Papacy, in German. II. 'H iiyli-Kr] rov Xpiarov (Twi^ei 
lifiag, "Constraining Love," 2 Cor. v. 14. The Pilgrim's Song. III. 
The Jews; Jewish Peculiarities. IV. What is Faith? V. Characters in 
the same Church — Dean Swift and Dr. Pusey. VI. For whom did Christ 
die ? Scripture Expressions. VII. Prussian Patriotism, Oct. 18th. VIII. 
'O QeoQ e(jt\v 'Aya7r?7. IX. Jewish Interpretations, Genesis xlix. 10. 
X. Eejoicing in the Lord. XI. Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? XII. 
Loca Sancta; First Impressions; a Hymn. XIII. Why do I reject the 
Authority of the Pope ? A Letter to a Komanist. XIV. Prayer. 



I.— WYLIE ON THE PAPACY. 

This work has at last made its appearance in the German 
language, and I have no doubt will be of great use on the 
Continent, where the old faith of Luther and the reformers, 
regarding the Papacy, is much weakened and in many places 
obliterated. I have met with very few ministers, professors, 
or intelligent laymen who believe the Pope to be Antichrist 
and the Papacy the Babylon of the Apocalypse ; yet this was 
the opinion of the reformers and martyrs of the Reformation. 
How has the change come about ? The following considera- 
tions may throw light on the subject : 1st. The reformed 
churches became lukewarm and forgot their first love. This 
naturally diminished their perception of the evil of sin and 
the hatefulness of idolatry in the sight of God. Then, 2nd, 
the eighteenth century saw the rise, progress, and full develop- 
ment of rationalism, which, when its principles are pressed 
home, banishes virtue out of action, mystery out of nature 



WYLIE ON THE PAPACY. 483 

and revelation, the Redeemer out of the Bible, the soul out of 
man, and a living, acting, personal Grod out of the universe. 
This frightful gangrene spread fearfullj^ through the German 
churches, and threatened to extinguish all positive faith in a 
creating and redeeming Grod for ever. Hence the few faithful 
in the midst of the general defections were led to compare 
the starch, formal, life-like deadness of the Papacy Avith the 
manifest and admitted corruption of rationalism. The Papacy 
holds the three ancient creeds ; could we not then pass over 
the images, the pictures, the purgatorial abominations, the 
man-worship, the woman-worship, the demon-worship, the 
bone-worship, bread- worship, the hierolatry, and all the thou- 
sand plague spots of that false and foul persecutrix of the 
children of God, and fix our eje on the Scripture doctrines 
and moralities which are contained in her forms ? AYhich 
side shall we take — the Papacy or rationalism — superstition 
or unbelief? The question was hard, and caused many to 
stumble ; and I believe the majority of the believing pastors 
finally sided with the Papacy, as containing sometliing real 
and positive on which the soul could feed. This feeling of 
course led them to mitigate the sentiments of the reformers 
regarding the unscriptural nature of the claims of the Pope. 
3rd. The sentiment prevailed, and still prevails, " l^o church 
is pure ; we are all tarred with the same stick ; and though 
the Papacy be the head of the apostacy, and claims justly a 
pre-eminence in guilt, yet all the rest are only daughters of 
that impure mother (Pev. xvii. 5), and differ from her not in 
kind but in degree." This melancholy and puling sentimen- 
tality is beginning to prevail in England also, among certain 
minor sects of great profession, as well as among the high- 
fliers of the semi- Popish and Puseyite type. 4th. In Prussia 
their famous Frederic the Great gave encouragement to the 
present indifference to all foi-ms of religion, so that the glories 

ii2 



4S4 



WYT.TE ON THE PAPACY. 



of the nation became liistorically associated, not witli tlie 
faith, of the gospel and the doctrines of the cross, but with 
the wisdom of the statesman and the impartial unbelief of a 
heroic king. This evil was immense, and its influence felt to 
the present day. Then came the tempests of the French 
Revolution, which prostrated the energies of the nations in 
bloody wars for a quarter of a century ; and as Papal and 
evangelical nations w^ere alike arrayed in battle against the 
common enemy of the rights of nations and the liberties of 
mankind, the political sympathy prevailed for the time over 
religious antipathies, and the idolatrous and reformed nations 
embraced each other, soldiers and Christians, on a common 
field of battle. This tended to blunt the edge of our Christian 
indignation in Germany against the Papacy. 5th. Then it 
must be borne in mind, also, that the Papacy is much improved 
of late years ; the Eeformation has partially, at least, un- 
stinged the viper, and mingled the deadly poison of falsehood 
and lies with some portions of truth and a little more regard 
to the decencies of morality. I do not say that the Papacy 
is essentially changed. I believe it is not ; it is still the great 
apostacy of the I^ew Testament, and the deadly enemy to the 
civil and religious liberties of mankind ; nor is its certain and 
predicted doom to be avoided, wdiich is nothing less than 
utter and everlasting destruction at the second advent of 
Christ (2 Thes. ii. 8, Dan. vii. 10, Eev. xix. 20). All this 
not^vithstanding, the popes, and the priests, and the various 
orders of the great superstition, have been greatly improved. 
We see none of the former monsters. The morality of the 
priesthood, in lands where Protestantism cli^ddes wdth fhem 
the population, is at least decent. This also has added to the 
disinclination of the reformed to interpret the Scripture de- 
nunciations of the Papal apostacy in their obvious natural 
sense. Such are some of the principal causes which have led 



WYLIE OX THE PAPACY. 



many of the Grermaii divines and theologians to abandon the 
doctrine of the reformers respecting the Papacy. The tide 
is, I think, now turning again, and I have no doubt " Wy lie's 
Papacy'' will lead multitudes to clearer views on the subject. 
The translation arose out of a clerical meeting in Briihl, of 
which I was a member. I presented the meeting with a copy ; 
the brethren were pleased and astonished at the argument of 
the book. Pastor Plitt was appointed to give an analysis of 
it in Grerman, which he did at the next meeting. Pastor 
Pocke undertook to translate it, leaving out all reflections on 
the Government of Prussia, and also those medicinal potions 
for the Papists, which are too strong for the German stomach. 
The book is, in fact, weakened and emasculated very much, 
but it contains the very utmost amount of religious and 
political truth which the government would permit, and it is 
highly probable that the translator and printer may get some 
months for quiet meditation in the retirement of a prison. 
The Papists are up on all sides — not to reply, but to denounce 
— not to reason and answer, but to invoke the civil power. 
They never name the book, lest an inquiring Papist should 
be inclined to purchase it. In Cologne no bookseller would 
take charge of it. Papist or Protestant. As soon as it came 
out I ordered 100 copies, which I mean to distribute gratis 
all around me. This will bring the book into many circles 
where it otherwise would never have appeared. The book is 
not calculated to turn Papists to the gospel, the argument 
being very sharp and severe. There is little love in it, and 
few heart- appeals to the conscience ; but the reason is led 
captive and the infinite superstition dissected with a master's 
hand. It will confirm the wavering and strengthen the weak. 
May the Lord grant His blessing to it as a means of counter- 
acting the idolatries and the idolatrous tendencies of the age I 
October Uh, ISbo. iiiq i ifinq ^ii; 



486 



CONSTRAINING LOVE. 



II. — 'H aya-KY] rov XpLcrrou avviyet ijfid^. CONSTRAINING 
LOVE, 2 Con. V. 14. 

This love of Christ is given as the cause of the Apostle's 
strange ecstatic conduct (v. 13). It has fully mastered us," 
says Paul, " filled the entire soul, and carried u.s out of our- 
selves, and become the great all-absorbing motive of our life and 
conduct." You may think us beside ourselves, or, like Festus, 
deem us altogether mad ; but the hidden fountains of our life 
and actions are to you unknown, or you would judge of us 
very differently^ We walk by an unseen rule — the rule of 
holy love, of which the world, as such, neither knows nor can 
know anything. Former joys, pleasures, and aims are all 
swallowed up in the one over-mastering passion of divine 
holy love to Christ. His love to sinful man is the current 
which has us ivith it, awLyzi, carries us along with it, so that 
we are entirely, only, and for ever devoted to Him — hand 
and heart are His, every faculty of the mind and every fibre of 
the body. You ask why this is so ? We can give no other 
answer than that " He is love r and they that love will 
gather round Him, for His name. His kingdom, and His 
nature is love. Love constrained Him, and love constrains 
us also ; we make a great exchange, He chose us and we 
choose Him ; He died for us, and we will live, suffer, and die 
with Him and for Him. This is no sentiment or feeling 
merely, but a strong principle, which neither height nor 
depth, nor things present nor things to come, can ever change. 
It has been often tried, and was always found victorious ; for 
it rises with difficulties to the greatness of the occasion, be- 
comes stronger and brighter as the storms thicken around us, 
and conquers even in dying and slaj^s by bein^ slain. Why 
do we leave all things for His sake, and bear to be treated as 
the basest of men and the offscouring of all things ? It is 



CONSTRAINING LOVE. 



487 



His love, and we find the change advantageous, "No material 
advantages can equal a glance of His love, for that enters 
into the sonl and satisfies it. "We would have a home for the 
heart, and we find it in His love — not a mere temporary 
arbour in the summer season, but an eternal home, where the 
loving soul may expand in the ocean-fulness of Divine love 
for ever. You put us in prison, and we sing in the night 
watches of His love ; you beat us with rods and scourge us in 
the streets, as the most ignoble and despised of mankind. Be 
it so ; we utter no complaint, we make no railing accusation, 
but we sufier patiently with Him whom we love. Nor does 
affection deem the trial hard. It rather glories in the oppor- 
tunities for proving how strong and genuine it is. You may 
kill us, and bring innocent blood upon your heads, but for us 
to live is Christ, to die is gain ; and, do what you may, we 
will live and die in His love. We have proved the foundation 
on which we stand, and have found it a rock; we know in 
whom we have believed, and we are persuaded we shall never 
be put to shame. Is all dark around us, and even in us, we 
have still a bright heaven above us, and a faithful, loving 
brother to welcome us there. Then, welcome all the perse- 
cutions of the enemy and all the attacks of the world and the 
devil. They only fix us firmer to the rock of our salvation, 
and fill us more fully with His constraining love. 

" Eock of ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee." 

Thus we labour, live, and die in His love ; and those only can 
know our motives to whom the secret of the Lord has been 
revealed. We are content to wait for an explanation till the 
Lord comes, who will make manifest the secrets of the heart. 

Have we left for Jesus' sake 
All tlie world can give or take, 



488 



JEWISH rECI^LIARITTES. 



Earthly hopes and worldl}^ fame, 
All that makes on earth a name? 
Ask the motive, and we say, 

AYhy those patchings, fastings, fears, 
VThj those tender loving tears, 
Lahours great, and sorrows deep. 
Nights of toil, and want of sleep ? 
"Why such perils night and day ? 
'^vi'ixEL i]{ia.Q \\ya7rr] ! 

The sea is high, the night is dark. 
The sin-ges heat the trembling bark ; 
Onward ! till the gospel sound 
Kend the earth's remotest bound ! 
Fear no dangers of the way, 
l.ui'ix^'- Vf^^Q 'AyuTrrj ! 

Light has reached us from above, 
Nations perish ! God is love! 
And Jesus from His throne of grace 
Sends to bless our falkn race ! 
Shall we then our course delay? 

October 8th, 1853. 



III.— THE JEWS; JEWISH PECULIAEITIES. 

Look at tliese dark ejes, pale, care-Tvorn faces, and remember 
that tliey are tlie seed of Abraham, the father of the faithful ; 
they are stiffnecked and rebellious as their fathers were, but 
yet, take them all in all, as a nation and as individuals, they 
are the most remarkable people on the face of the earth. 
"What a hoary antiquity surrounds with its dim halo that 
Abrahamic race ! Their records lead us back to the early 
ages of the world, the prophets, the patriarchs, the deluge, 



JEWISH PECULIAMTIES. 



489 



and tlie creation ; their history is the simplest, truest, and 
most ancient in existence, and their legislation and literature 
have had a greater influence on the culture, manners, and 
civilisation of mankind, than any other. The celebrity of 
the nation is great. For every one that reads Milton, Homer, 
Yirgil, or Schiller, at least one hundred thousand read the 
Psalms of David ! Compare the odes of Horace, or the songs 
of Sappho, or the Hebrew Melodies with the Psalms. Com- 
pare the twelve tables with the ten commandments. Solomon 
is still, in the whole Eastern world, the type of a great, volup- 
tuous, and magnificent king ; and Abraham is known to and 
admired by Jews, Mohammedans, and Christians, viz., by more 
than the half of the human race ! Prophecy, miracle, and the 
Divine purpose of love to mankind have been more concen- 
trated in and manifested by the Jemsh race than any other 
(Romans ix. 4, 5). They have passed through more st range 
varieties of condition than any other people, and, united or 
dispersed, under the blessing or the curse, they are alike the 
proofs and expositors of Divine Providence. The nation is 
miraculously and historically divided. Ten tribes are cast 
out, according to the prophecy (Isaiah xi. 12), and nobody 
can find them ; two tribes, the much smaller portion, are dis- 
persed according to the prophecies, and they cannot be hid; 
we meet them, feel them, hate and persecute them everywhere. 
Could this have been by chance ? Jerusalem is still the 
centre of the nation ; and it is the only city in the world sacred 
to the followers of Moses, Mohammed, and Christ. Pilgrims 
from the ends of the earth within its walls ; and in its narrow, 
dirty streets, you may hear spoken nearly all the languages 
of civilised man. I confess, when I think of these things, I 
am amazed at the fame and celebrity of that remarkable 
nation. They are still, and ever have been, a literary people ; 
they are at present, without doubt, the most celebrated tra- 



490 



WHAT IS FAITH? 



vellers and linguists in the world. Then, if you consider the 
matter in a purely religious light, we Christians should cer- 
tainly love the Jews and seek the good of Jerusalem. Have 
we not our privileges from them ? Have we not their books, 
their laws, and their ancient inheritance ? All insjpiration is 
from them, and both covenants (Eomans ix. 4) belonged 
originally to them. The prophets and apostles were Jews ; 
and from them, according to the human nature, came the 
Messiah, who is over all God blessed for ever. He is con- 
nected with them in every way — the seed of Abraham the 
faithful — the Son of David the king — born of a Jewish 
virgin — preaching to the J ewish nation — crucified in a Jewish 
city — ^buried in a Jewish grave — and from a Jewish moun- 
tain ascending to his heavenly throne. How we should love 
all things for his sake ! Immortal love flows from this one 
J ewish fountain over all the world, to fertilise and renovate 
the decaying life of mankind. In this great Jewish heart 
there is life, mercy, and room for us all. 

October Uth, 1853. 



IV.— WHAT IS FAITH? 

Implicit belief in whatever anybody tells you ? Then in 
that case there is no reason why you should not receive as 
Divine truth, Islam, Budhism, the Indian Schasters, or any 
other systems of absurd and degrading superstition. Would 
it be honest in man or glorifying to God, to receive His truth 
in such a manner ? By no means, and such implicit belief is 
not the evangelical faith of the New Testament. If we knew 
beforehand, indeed, that the system was true ; if we knew that 
the person spealdng to us was God, then I admit that the 



WHAT IS FAITH ? 



491 



more ready and implicit the assent the better. This, however, 
can never be the case, except by private revelation, and as 
Christianity is only one of many systems, all of which assert 
their celestial origin, we are by the necessity of the case 
driven to seek some grounds for our faith. Stop ! cries the 
E/Omanist ; this effect is nothing but private judgment, and if 
you yield to that ignis fatuus, it will certainly lead jou into 
the mazes of error ; give up your own opinions and hear the 
church, the only infallible mistress and interpreter of truth. 
There alone you will find rest for your soul. But am I to 
believe your word simply that the Pope is infalKble ? Are 
you not exercising private judgment, even while you are ask- 
ing me to give up mine ? Whatever authority the church 
has, whether infallible or otherwise, it can be recognised only 
by private judgment, and to this you must come in the end ; 
you must give some grounds for the dogma of papal infalli- 
bility, and so your controversialists uniformly do ; they talk 
of the antiquity, the universahty, the sanctity, and the apos- 
tolicity of the papal church ; and therefore, she is true and 
infallible, viz. : you appeal from your private judgment to 
mine, and I on the contrary am persuaded that your church 
is apostate, unholy , unapostoUcal, and idolatrous. But you say, 
I am afraid to trust to my own opinions ; I wish for some- 
thing to lean on. Be it so, but in yielding to such authority 
you are acting like the timorous traveller in the East, who 
was afraid the bridge over the Jordan would not bear his 
weight ; he was nervous, it seemed tottering, and so he called 
for a donkey, shut his eyes, and then committed himself to 
his fortune. In yielding to the dictation of another, you 
first of all surrender the reason and faculties which God hath 
given you, and for which you are responsible to Him ; and 
secondly, you are not diminishing in the least degree any one of 
the difficulties that attach to Christianity ; and thirdly, you are 



492 



SWIFT AND PUSEY. 



adding the doiilvey's weight to your own in the difficulties that 
must be surmounted before you can receive the infallibility 
of the Pope. It is true, when you shut your eyes you can 
rush more confidently over the bridge, but the danger is by 
no means diminished on that account. Eaith is not therefore 
the assent to a certain amount of dogmas, but a holy living 
confidence in the person and work of the Son of God. ISo 
man, no number of men, no dogmas, no systems stand 
between our souls and Him. Our faith is on Him — the 
Incarnate One — the Hying Lamb — the ascended High Priest 
and Mediator — and the Coming King. The fountain of our 
joy is in Him. JN'o priestly functionaries with sacramental 
conductors stand between the members and the Head, nor, if 
they did, coidd they diminish our responsibilities or draw 
down the blessings of His grace. Love, grace, holiness, 
cannot be felt or exercised by proxy. The relations between 
the soul and the Son of God, are direct and personal ; his 
fulness meets our wants, his love conquers our rebellion, his 
cross attracts and warms our affections, his strength succours 
us in dangers and difficulties. We take what He gives, Ave 
follow when he leads, we beheve what he says, and this is 
faith ; the faith which is the ojoeration of God's Holy Spirit, 
and leads the soul away from the musty moth-eaten systems 
of men, to the person of the risen glorified God-man ; which 
honours the Creator and humbles the creatm-e by recognising 
the sovereignty and sufficiency of Divine Grace. 

Octoler loth, 1853. 



Y.—CHARACTEBS IN THE SAME CHUECH—SWIFT 
AND PUSEY. 

AYhich is the more admirable churchman, Dean Swift or Dr. 
Pusey ? A hard question. JSTeither of them could afford to 



SCllIPTURE EXPRESSIONS. 



493 



keep a conscience. Swift lias had no successor, and it is to be 
hoped neither will the other. Stellas and Yanessas are as 
rare as deans. As a writer, Swift is infinitely superior, and 
it is hard to say whether his obscenity or Pusey's superstition 
be the more detrimental to the well-being of man. Swift was 
a true Timon, and perfect misanthrope ; an ambitious man, 
disappointed in his hope, he becomes a patriot, and writes his 
bad, false, bitter, biting letters. He is the most unamiable, 
the most unhappy man, and the most powerful writer of his 
age. The morality of the generation does not require that a 
clergyman should have a character, and he has none ; he does 
his duties, and keeps his concubines ; he has no amiabilities 
at all, cold, stiff, selfish, cruel, hard-hearted, he withers and 
blights all he touches, and seems at home only v/hen accusing 
the whole human race. His genius is dark and cloudy, but 
great, proud, and defiant ; a scorner alike of gods, men, and 
devils. He was a unique soul, and I hope we shall not soon see 
his like again. Pusey can, perhaps, be loved, but not admired. 
His position is as false, and his principles fully as despicable, 
as the Dean's. He is preparing young men for the papacy, 
but he has not courage to leave the Church of England. He 
is busily employed in charging guns, but he allows others to 
pull the trigger. Like Swift he subordinates his conscience 
to his place, and perhaps, like him, looked at one time for a 
bishopric. He was born in England, but his heart is in 
Rome. 

October Ibth, 1853. 



VI.—FOR WHOM DID CHRIST DIE ?-SCRIPTUEE 
EXPRESSIONS. 

How various and full are the Scriptures on the subject of 



494 



SCRIPTURE EXPRESSIONS. 



His love ! He is united with tlie race of man by the 
assumption of our nature, and all our relations, hopes, and 
responsibilities are centred and perfected in Him. The seed ' 
of the ivoman, his person, life, and death, have lifted up and 
glorified the character of the female sex, so that woman 
stands as at the beginning, the help-meet and companion 
for man. The seed of Abraham, Jesus of IsTazareth is the 
centre which sustains the destinies of the scattered race, and 
the virtue of His great atonement shall yet gather them to 
their God, and purify them as a nation from the taint of 
unbelief. He is the son of David, the Heir, the royal House, 
and as such sums up all human power in his own person, 
so that He is the prince of the kings of the earth, and they 
are all bound to acknowledge and obey him. The effect of 
His dying love is to make us kings and priests to God and 
his Father ; He is the head of the body, and as such He loved 
the Church, and gave himself for it, to purify to himself a 
peculiar people zealous of good works ; He is the good 
shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the 
sheep ; He is the husband, and so naturally the object of his 
dying love is the Bride, the Lamb's wife ; He is the Elect 
of God, and as the Election-head, He loves, redeems, and 
glorifies all the elect people of God ; He is the Son of man, 
the mediator between God and man, and as such he gave 
himself a ransom for all. All partake, more or less, of the 
blessings of His grace, and it is certain that the fountain 
opened in Him, is sufiicient for the transgressions of man- 
kind. Hence the blessed fulness and freeness of his dying 
love. He died for the unjust, for the ungodly, for the dead 
in trespasses and sins, for those that are far off, and those 
that are near, for the tcorld, for the whole world, for all, for 
every man. These free full statements of His love are cast 
abroad among the people without reserve, that the least and 



PRUSSIAN PATRIOTISM. 



495 



tlie most miserable may take courage and turn to tlie Lord. 
We shoLdd by no means seek to limit tbem. His wisdom is 
better than ours, and if He has caused them to be so written, 
we should neyer hesitate to proclaim them. When you come 
to the Election/' preach it too, and never think of the 
consequences, but take great care that you do no violence 
to the Word of Gfod. I would rather be involved in seeming 
inconsistencies in my creed than guilty of wresting the 
Word of God. What seem inconsistencies to our weak 
erring vision may be only the different views of the same 
subject, all of which are not only consistent but necessary 
for the unity and perfection of the whole. 



Vn.— PRUSSIAN PATRIOTISM. 

I know of no land where the feeling of patriotism seems 
more deeply rooted than in Prussia. You do not indeed hear 
so much about it as in England and America, but this arises 
from the fact that the people are of a quieter and more 
reflective character, and have consequently much less to do 
with public affairs. The institutions of the country do not 
allow the same liberty to the press as with us, public political 
meetings are not permitted, and free open discussion, which we 
glory in so much, is greatly restrained ; the nation has not, as 
with us, in the course of ages, through many struggles and 
much bloodshed, wrought out its own liberties. Prussia owes 
everything to its kings, and if the government be stern and 
military, it is equal, just, and liberal. Our national history is 
illustrated by many events and characters of which other 
nations cannot boast. We have our royalty , and our royal 
lines, including all that is great and noble in the monarchical 
system; we have our nobility^ coming between the prince 



496 



niUSSIAN PATRIOTISM. 



and tlie people, and uniting tlie extremes — a nobility, taking 
it all in all, the prondest, the noblest, the most liberal, the 
most steadfast, and the most popular that ever existed. "We 
have our hereditary democracy (including the British nation, 
a few thousand nobles excepted), with its known well-defined 
rights, its active public spirit, its burning enthusiasts, its 
reformers, martyrs, and heroes. These and many other 
principles working together, and modifying one another for 
ages, have resulted in the British constitution, which is no 
coat cut to order by political tailors, but a sUn which has 
grown upon and around the nation. Our history is the 
history of a nation ; the history of Prussia is the history of 
its kings. This difierence will account for the two facts, 
that the Prussians have so little to do with afiairs of state, 
and that they associate all national glory with the king. 
How deep this feeling of loyalty is, any one may convince 
himself who spends the 18th of October in Germany. It is 
the great national festival in honour of liberty. On this day 
the empire of France was broken, and the imperial eagles 
driven over the Rhine. The terrible battle of Leipsic, 
the greatest ever fought, prostrated at one blow the tyranny 
of ]N"apoleon, and freed the crushed nations of the continent. 
Service is held in all the churches this day, and the eye of 
the nation is directed to the years of" their bondage, and the 
awful events and struggles which led to their emancipation. 
In less serious meetings, and in their evening parties, they 
give vent to their feelings in speeches, toasts, and patriotic 
songs. I attended the meeting of the citizen-society of 
Bonn, this evening, when I had a fine opportunity of seeing 
the interior of German society. The occasion was a high 
one, and the rooms were quite full ; cigars, pipes, plates, 
wine glasses, are necessary accompaniments at all these 
meetings ; the atmosphere is as full of smoke as the field of 



PRUSSIAN PATRIOTISM. 



497 



Leipsic was the day of the battle ; and the celebrated Khine 
wines flow freely. Professor Sell, rector of the university, 
gives a lecture on the state of Europe during the reign of 
JSTapoleon ; it is earnest, popular, and patriotic. At the con- 
clusion the whole assembly burst forth in the celebrated 
national song, composed by Arndt, in honour of Blucher, 
and in detestation of the French, beginning thus — 

Was blasen die Trompeten ? Husaren heraus ! 

Es reitet der Feldmarschall im fliegenden Saus. 

Er reitet so freudig sein mutliiges Pferd, 

Er schwinget so schneidig sein blitzendes Schwert. 
luchheirassasah ! und die Deutschen sind da, 
Die Deutschen sind lustig, sie mfen Hurrah ! 

This famous lyric has penetrated the heart of Grermany, 
and more than anything else keeps alive among the people 
the patriotic feelings of liberty and independence. It over- 
flows with the most fervid hatred of the French. After this 
song the glasses were filled, and the glory, prosperity, and 
liberty of Fatherland was drunk with all honours. Professor 
Von R-iese then unrolled a large map of the battle-field which 
he had made for the occasion, and showed the positions of the 
various armies. After this a major in the Prussian army, 
who had been present in the battle, gave us a good military 
speech, and concluded by denying that the Khine was the 
natural boundary of France. As a natural finish, the meeting 
than sang with fearful vehemence, 

"Sie soUen ihn nicht haben, 
Den freien Deutschen Rhein, 
Ob sie wie gierige Eaben 
Sich heiser darnacb schrei'n !" 

K K 



498 



GOD IS LOVE. 



They'll uever hare it, never, 
The tree, the German Ehine, 

Although like greedy ravens 
The hungrv Gauls combine. 



October ISth, 1853. 



VIII. — 'O Qedc kffrh' ayairri. 

Most holy and blessed G-od, I am lost in the contemplation 
of th}^ works. They are too high for me. The least portion 
of them is far above all that I can know or comprehend. 
All that I know, in whole or in part, only teaches me how 
much remains nnknown. Thon art holy, yet sin abounds : 
Thou art ever3'where present, and yet the evil doers thrive and 
prosper in thy world. Is there the same ^visdom seen in 
allowing sin and death and Satan to ruin the creation as in 
the creation itself ? I know not, 0 my Grod, but I have the 
assurance that TJiou. art lore. This tranquillises my heart. 
and I say. Love will make it all right in the end. I see 
hoKness oppressed and wickedness often triiunphant, the true 
gospel of thy Son dishonoured and trampled in the dust, 
while a base and bloody superstition extinguishes the light of 
thy word and enslaves the souls of men. Ever^^here we 
may trace the ruins of fallen greatness, the decay of nations, 
and the overthrow of aU which glorified the ]3ast ; the history 
of om- world is written in blood and tears, and sighs ascend 
this moment from millions of human hearts — yet Thou art 
love. 0 Lord, my Hedeemer and my Grod ! I take refuge in 
thee from all the doubts, temptations, and trials of this vain, 
world ; from all the suggestions of the evil heart as well as 
the devices of the devil. Thou art love, and love will in 



JEWISH INTERPRETATIONS. 



499 



the end shine more brightly, when the storms are past and 
gone. Thy word is my study and my delight, 0 Lord, for 
there I see the fulness of thy love to man — Jesus in the 
manger, on the cross, and in the grave, is the only just measure 
and exposition of that word. Gfod is love ; the incarnate 
Son is the manifestation of thy fatherly love to the sons of 
men. O, let not the world nor sin come in between me and 
the assurance of thy love ; but give me always a firm and 
vivid conviction of the great truth, that Thou art love, and 
lovest all that Thou hast made. Banish all guilt}^ doubts and 
fears from my heart, in life and in death, that I may in the 
cross of the Son and the communion of the Holy Ghost 
realise the fulness and freeness of thy love. Let me live in 
the assurance of it, and let my last breath be breathed out in 
uttering the blessed and glorious truth, that Thou art love. 

October 22ml, 1853. 



IX.— JEWISH INTERPRETATIONS.— Gen xlix. 10. 

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver 
from between his feet, until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall 
the gathering of the people be." This is on the whole a good 
translation, and has borne the shock of many fierce attacks. 
The first word that claims our notice is tDUti^ shehet (or sceptre), 
which some will translate trihe, viz., the tribe shall not depart 
from Judah till the Shiloh come; but this is an awkward 
way of saying, " Judah shall not cease to be a tribe " till 
Shiloh come ; and it is very questionable if the text will bear 
any such meaning. 1st. Shehet does not originally refer to a 
tribe, but to a rod or stick, see Lev. xxvii. 32 ; Ps. ii. 9 ; 
Prov. x. 13, xiii. 24, xxii. 28 ; Job ix. 34, xxi. 9. From this 

K K 2 



mo 



JEWISH INTERPRETATIONS. 



it comes easily to the signification of sceptre, as the symbol of 
authority and power (I^um. xxiv. 17). In Zech. x. 11, the 
same word is used : " The sceptre of Egypt shall depart 
and " He that holdeth the sceptre^' (Amosi. 5), is used abso- 
lutely for the king. Doubt, therefore, there can be none, that 
the word in our text signifies properly sceptre, and the ancient 
Jews, in their Targums, so explain it. 2nd. If shebet be 
translated tribe, what difficulty does it either remove or lessen ? 
IN'one. At the coming of Shiloh the tribes were broken up 
and the entire nation dissolved. The sceptre departed from 
Judah, and it also ceased to be a separate tribe, so that the 
Jew finds no way of escape here. They are a dispersed and 
ruined nation, and they are so only since the coming of the 
Shiloh, and therefore the prophecy is fulfilled in them and the 
Messias is come. This is a stifi" text for the J ew, and he feels 
the difficulty, and, like a fish caught in a net, makes violent 
effi)rts to escape. Hence many of them assert that the sceptre 
has not departed, and that on the river Sanbattion there still 
exists a great and powerful Jewish kingdom. This river and 
kingdom are in the Talmud, indeed, but they are nowhere 
else. The river encircles the kingdom, and rolls so furiously 
that no Jews can escape nor any Gentiles get in ; it rests, 
indeed, on the Sabbath, but, being broader than a Sabbath- 
day's journey, no Jew will break the sacred rest by going 
out. This entire fable was formed to evade the force of the 
text, Gren. xlix. 10. The Western Jews give it up ; in 
Damascus they hold the tradition firmly, and have often 
quoted it against me in our discussions. But who or what is 
rt^^Ii^ Shiloh ? 1st. Rabbi Solomon and the modern Jews 
translate it as the name of a place, thus : " The sceptre shall 
not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, 
until he come to Shiloh." The meaning is, Judah shall have 
this pre-eminence until the tribes reach Shiloh in the land of 



JEWISH IJsTERPRETATIONS. 



501 



Canaan. But, we ask, did any change in this respect take 
•place then ? We deny it. Jndah was ahvays the first of the 
tribes, both in the wilderness and in the promised land. This 
translation originated, I believe, with the German rationalists, 
who, like the reformed Jews, admit neither prophecy nor 
Messiah in the Old Testament. With them miracle, pro- 
phecy, and Divine revelation are absurd and impossible. 
Besides, even if the text will bear this translation, we ask, 
" How were the nations gathered to Judah It is evident 
no nations were ever gathered unto Judah, and therefore 
D^D^ must be translated tribes, a meaning which I believe it 
rarely has. in the singular, and with the suffixes denotes 
the Jewish nation as distinguished from the Grentiles, but in 
the plural it may and often does mean nations, peoples, the 
heathen (Ps. xxxiii. 10 ; Is. viii. 9). The passage, therefore, 
does not refer to the gathering of the tribes or the Jeivish 
people to the Shiloh, but the gathering of the Gentiles around 
the banner of the Jewish prince. He is to be a light to the 
Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel. On the gathering 
of the nations to Shiloh, compare the following passages : 
Isaiah ii. 2, xi. 10, xlii. 1—4, xlix. 6, 7, 22, 23, Iv. 4, 5, 
Ix. 1 — 8 ; Hag. ii. 7. This gathering unto Christ is not 
peculiar to the Old Testament. In the JSTew Testament the 
germs of the Old are developed, and the scattered seeds 
gathered into one noble garden. The scattered rays form 
one radiance of glory aroimd the head of the Redeemer. 
He is the centre of the nations, the risen Head of the Church, 
the human race, and the whole creation of God. See 
2 Thes. ii. 1 ; 1 Thes. iv. 17 ; Eph. i. 21—23. We see, then, 
no just reason for limiting Q'';^^ nations, to the twelve tribes 
of Israel. Judah, therefore, cannot be the subject of the 
sentence, for the nations were never gathered unto him. 
Shiloh alone was in the mind of the prophet, and of Him 



502 



JEWISH INTERPRETATIONS. 



it is asserted, " To Him shall the gathering of the people be." 
2nd. This leads us to the true meaning of the word Shiloh,. 
which is, the peaceable, the peace-hringer, the abstract being 
used for the concrete. De Wette translates it jwace, and this 
rendering has everything for and nothing against it. He is 
our peace, viz., the peace-maker between God and man ; His 
name is the Prince of peace ; His gospel brings peace into the 
soul ; His kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness and peace 
and joy in the Holy Ghost ; the song over His birth was a 
song of peace ; His last words in ascending were the bene- 
dictions of peace to His disciples ; and His death on the cross 
was the seal of peace. It is derived from the verb nbw^ qnievit, 
and in its formation follows a common analogy of the lan- 
guage. This early prophecy, therefore, delineates the expected 
Deliverer and King as the peace-bringer, who, bruising the 
serpent's head, would be able to establish a kingdom of peace. 
All objections to this exposition are make-shifts to get out of 
difficulties, and deserve no consideration. The Jewish church 
referred it to the Messias (Nork on the word), and from 
Justin Martyr on the Christian church has seen no other 
there but Jesus of I^azareth, the King of the Jews. The 
fathers and versions, indeed, are quite different as to the 
meaning of the word Shiloh, but they are unanimous in 
applying it to Christ. They read and pointed the word thus : 
rhw the standing for nt^K and rb for gi^g 
following sense, which is quite parallel both in form and sig- 
nification with Ezek. xxi. 32—'' The sceptre shall not depart," 
&c., " until He come to whom it belongs, and to Him shall 
the gathering of the people be." This, no doubt, is possible, 
and gives a very good sense ; but the former is simpler and 
much to be preferred. Other views of this famous text we 
pass over, and conclude with the following summary : 1st. The 
Jewish nation expected a deliverer ; this hope was the ani- 



REJOICING IN THE LORD WITH ALL GLADNESS. 503 

mating principle of their ceremonial and worship. 2nd. This 
text delineates His character — the peace-maker in whom the 
distant and the near, the earth and the heavens, the sinner 
and his God, should be reconciled. 3rd. This Messias was to 
be of the Jewish nation, but for the Gfentiles also. His love 
was to flow over the wastes of a fallen world. 4th. Either 
the king or the lawgiver, viz., subordinate ruler, was to continue 
to the Jews till the Shiloh came. This was fulfilled in the 
times of Christ, for shortly after their rejection of Him the 
temple was burned and the city of Jerusalem destroyed by 
the Romans. 

October 2Uh, 1853. 



X.— KEJOICING IN THE LORD WITH ALL GLADNESS. 

The provision which our God hath made for our wants is 
complete. He saw our difficulties and met them all in the 
person of our Redeemer, and conquered them all. No pro- 
digal so far off that His Fatherly love cannot reach, and 
welcome, and forgive ; no prison so deep and dark that His 
power cannot open, and His light irradiate with the beams of 
Divine mercy. The manna falls plentifully, and the water 
flows from the rock still to water all thirsty souls in their 
pilgrimage to heaven. How rich His mercy — how full and 
boundless the ocean of His love — ^how inexhaustible the 
depths of His wisdom in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ! 
Think of all His rich promises to the perishing sinner ; think 
of the examples of transgressors whom His grace has saved — 
the Manassehs, the Sauls, and the Magdalens, who are now 
before the throne above ; think of the multitudes from all 
nations, and kindreds, and tongues, which now sing the song 



504 REJOICING IN THE LORD WITH ALL GLADNESS. 

of Moses and the Lamb, and you will see that the sinner who 
dies shall perish self- condemned. J esus wept over Jerusalem 
and said, ''But ye toould not!''' The fountain is full, but 
je will not drink ; the light shines, but men prefer the dark- 
ness rather than the Kght, because their deeds are evil. He 
has made provision too for ou-r joy, and calls for loving, joyful, 
happy hearts. "Eejoice in the Lord evermore, and again I 
say rejoice." He is the object of our adoring love. He re- 
moves the earthly vanities which distract the mind, and opens 
up to our admiring eyes the wonders of Hjs person and the 
glories of His work. We rejoice in Him ; walk in Him ; 
live only in and for Him. There is no joy like this, for it is 
pure and satisfying. We have found the beloved of our 
souls, and the enlarged, transfused, emancipated heart re- 
clines, like the beloved disciple, on the bosom of His love. 
We grow up into Him in all things, and by contemplating 
His beauty we become transfoiTaed into His image ; and yet 
every approach makes us only long for nearer communion — 
every victory over sin, and the world, and the flesh, only 
shows us more and more the unapproachable hoKness, majesty, 
and beauty of His character. Rejoice, therefore, in the Lord. 
He loved thee, and laid down His life for thee. He took a 
long journey that He might meet thee in thy perishing con- 
dition, and revive thee by His love. Think of the heaven 
which He left, and the miseries and cruel mockeries to which 
He came, and came for thee — the lowly manger, the accursed 
cross, and the loathsome grave. Rejoice in Him ! All this 
world, or the next along ^ith it, is as nothing when com- 
pared with Him who is the glorious inefiable source of all 
that is good and great in the universe, and He himself is the 
fountain of thy joy. We are surrounded by His presence — 
filled and satisfied with His grace — defended, guided, and 
strengthened by His power. Our life is Christ, and our death 



WHOM HAVE I IN HEAVEN BUT THEE ? 505 

is gain. Here is an object worth living for indeed, whicli 
ennobles tbe beholder, and gives him even in this imperfect life 
something of the peace and effulgence of heaven. I only 
marvel that we love Him and deKght in Him so little ! — that 
a single hour should pass without thinking of our Beloved ! 
O Thou great, glorious, and holy God, enlarge my heart, that I 
may love Thee more and serve Thee better than I have hitherto 
done ; give me Thy Holy Spirit to work in me what is well- 
pleasing in Thy sight, that I may rejoice evermore in Thee 
alone, through Jesus Christ, my Saviour and Redeemer. 
Amen. 

October 2bth, 1853. ' 



XI.— WHOM HAVE I IN HEAVEN BUT THEE.?— Ps. Ixxiii. 25. 
Compare Phil. iii. 3— 8, and others. 

Paul and Asaph, as well as all those who really know 
Jesus, find nothing more desirable than Him ; fijid in Him, 
even here on earth, in the way of faith, more than heaven and 
earth together can offer. What then shall they see and 
enjoy in Him above, where they shall be with Him, like Him, 
and see Him as he is ! But these heroes of the faith have 
only few successors ; most people now-a-days speak another 
language and say as they think ; " Give me this world and its 
treasures ; let me enjoy the flesh and its lusts ; give me the 
honour which comes from men, and I can do well enough 
without Christ." Others, who desire better things, say : Could 
I only get into heaven ; that is what I would like, but why is 
it necessary to believe on Christ ? O ye children of men ! ye 
desire too little ; ye may have more, greatly more, than the 
whole world, the whole humanity — yes, more than heaven 



506 



WHOM HAVE I IN HEAVEN BUT THEE? 



itself is or has. Jesus gives you Himself, and in Him you 
have more than a thousand worlds — more than the heaven of 
heavens. To know Him, and in Him the Father, is life 
eternal ; is more than all the riches of the world ; more glad- 
dening than the lusts of the flesh ; more glorious than all the 
honours of men. Without and beside Him all is absolutely 
nothing ; heaven without Him would be heaven no more ; 
its glories would become a desolate wilderness. Without 
Him and beside Him all is nothing and less than nothing, for, 
as Paul says, it is all dross, and dung, and unsatisfying 
vanity. Be not deceived, therefore, by earthly glory and 
human fame. He that has Jesus has all — has immeasurably 
more than if he had all things else without having Him. He 
who has Him not as a friend has Him as an enemy, and the 
enemy of Christ shall certainly enjoy no pleasure long. But 
this is not all ; dost thou not take Him for thy God and Lord, 
thy Saviour and Eedeemer, yea, thine all in all? then remember 
He is thy Judge, and will certainly condemn and reject thee, 
inasmuch as thou hast despised and rejected Him. Can the 
whole world, with all its joys and honours, help thee then ? 
Of what use are gold and silver, wealth and fame, before the 
judgment seat ? What can redeem thee from the wrath to 
come ? Therefore it remains ever certain that there is not 
only no gain like Christ, but all other gain is loss if you have 
not Him. But he that has Him has enough of everything. 

Jesus, lead me to the fountain 

Where thy love for ever flows ; 
Worlds compared with thee are nothing ; 

Joys are only covered woes. 

What can thousand worlds avail us, 

As we stand before the throne ? 
Every human stay must fail us ; 

He can help and He alone. 



THE HOLY PLACES. FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 



507 



Art thou mine, O holy Jesus? 

Then creation too is mine ; 
And what tongue can tell how needfi.il 

Is thy love and power divine ? 

" Grosser Heiland, deine Triebe 

Schenke mir zum Liebes-Seil ! 
Fiix ein Tropflein deiner Liebe 
Sind mir tausend Welten fell. 

Denn was waren tausend Welten ? 

Und was niitzt mir ihr Gewinn ? 
Wenn du anfangst mich zu schelten, 

1st mein ganzes Gliick dahin. 

Aber wenn ich dich besitze, 
Sind die Welten alle mein. 

0, wer sagt's, wie viel es niitze, 
Deiner Huld versichert sein." 



XII.— THE LOOA SANCTA.— FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 

Let us glance over this land of wonders, to which the heart 
of the Christian world still turns, as its dearest and most 
cherished earthly home. It is the land promised to Abraham 
and his posterity for ever, on the condition of their keeping- 
covenant with God ; and though the holy people are no longer 
there, or there only as strangers in their own land, yet the 
inhabitants, the manners and the customs of the natives 
remind, at every step, of the earlier ages of the world, when 
simple faith was young, and God and the holy angels held 
intercourse with the sons of men. Ascend to the roof of my 
house in Damascus, and survey the marshalled hosts of that 
glorious firmament to which the patriarch was directed to 
look, when he heard the heavenly voice, " and such shall thy 
seed be.'' It is, indeed, a magnificent vision, and lifts up the 



508 THE HOLY PLACES. FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 

soul to that cerulean heaven where the adorable Creator, 
enthroned in the unapproachable glories of His own nature, 
receives the homage and guides the destinies of the universe. 
Yet that star-powdered expanse, wide and glorious as it is, 
is only the portico to the mighty temple of creation, in which 
the illimitable Jehovah has manifested the wonders of his 
power ; and jet, if you consider how far the moral transcends 
the physical, how much love and mercy and compassion are 
superior to wisdom, strength, and majesty, you will exclaim, 
with the Christian poet, 

" When marshalled on the nightly plain, 

The glittering hosts bestud the sky, 
One star alone of all the train, 

Attracts the wandering sinner's eye, 
It is the star of Bethlehem." 

But see, yonder is the plain of Mamre, where Abraham 
entertained the angels (Gen. xviii.), and Sarah prepared her 
cakes, and the sui^e word of the Lord was fulfilled in the 
promise of a son and heir. His tents are no more there, 
though others are ; and no angels meet you any more ; yet 
the eloquent air of the olden times breathes and burns through 
the whole land. Bethel is in ruins, according to the word of 
the Lord ; yet the God of Bethel and the wrestling of Jacob 
live in the languages, Kterature, and psalmodies of three 
hundi'ed millions of men. How potent are these names still ! 
Bethlehem, Tabor, Jerusalem, Calvary, Olivet, are not mere 
names, but mighty realities, which, throwing Eome, Athens, 
and Ol^mapus into the shade, are re-echoed in two hundred 
languages, and mentioned with veneration wherever valour, 
constancy, and love are held in esteem among the children 
of men. They have tamed and humanised the wild beasts 
which Daniel saw in the great prophetic calendar of earthly 



THE HOI.Y PLACES. FIUST IMPRESSION'S. 



509 



kingdoms (Daniel vii.), and transfused into the decaying 
civilisations and states of antiquity the vigour and fervour of 
a moral renovation. Come along ! every valley has its sacred 
tradition, every mountain, rock, and cave re-echoes the voices 
of the past ; prophecies over nations, cities, and races were 
uttered here, and there the miracles of the Old Testament and 
the New were transacted before the people. The heroes of 
the sword, from Joshua to I^apoleon, and the heroes of the 
faith, from Abraham to Christ, have fought and conquered in 
this promised land. It was the battle-field of the world, and 
prophecy has not done with it yet. From it the tide of grace 
and civilisation rolled over the world ; and Palestine has left 
a greater impression on the languages, customs, laws, consti- 
tutions, and kingdoms of the world, than all other countries 
put together. It is one of the three historic lands, and its 
history is the oldest and most authentic in existence ; it is the 
land of prophecy and miracle, of heroes, poets, and conquerors ; 
it is the land of sacred literature and the birthplace of true 
reKgion. Above all, it is the land of incarnate Love, where 
the great Deliverer lived, laboured, and died for the children 
of men. These are attractions of no ordinary kind. We visit 
Marathon, Pharsalia, and Waterloo, and feel moved by the 
associations of greatness and glory connected with them ; how 
much more should every Christian heart be moved, as he visits 
the tomb of Christ, or stands on the Mount of Olives ? Here 
the interest is neither personal nor merely national, but mun- 
dane and even universal ; for here the victory was gained for 
the whole race of man— the victory over the powers of sin, 
and death, and the grave. We forget all the filth and deceit 
of the monks that guard these places, in the real interests 
which must always be associated with the great events and 
facts of redeeming love. The land is filled with traditions of 
all kinds, some of them true, many of them evidently false ; 



510 THE HOLY PLACES. FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 

but the great outlines of Bible geography and history shine 
forth like sunbeams around the paths of the pilgrim in Pales- 
tine. But what are some of the general conclusions to be 
drawn from a visit to the Holy Places ? They are many. 
First, it is calculated to strengthen our faith in the promises 
and prophecies, when we see the spots where they haye been 
more especially realised. Then, again, we may learn how 
soon these holy associations lose their power, or, at all events, 
their solemnising power, for there is no set of men, perhaps, 
on earth less devout and reverential than the filthy, lazy, 
avaricious monks, whose business is to show you the places, 
record their traditions, and get as much money from you as 
possible. The traffic in masses is not more certainly the 
devil's market than the sight-seeing and relic-worship in the 
Loca Sancta. There is no land, perhaps, where religion is 
more separated from morality than this ; and no places where 
Divine worship is less pure and heartfelt than these holy 
places. It is mere form. All the purer energies of the soul 
are lost and neglected in the genuflexions and grimaces of 
external ritualism. Hence we may gather that it is the will 
of God that our affections should not centre in place, but in the 
glorious Person who gives them all their value ; not in Beth- 
lehem, but the Babe of Bethlehem ; not in Calvary, but in the 
Crucified ; not in the tomb where He lay, but in the Con- 
queror who rose from the dead, and ascended in our name 
into the many-mansioned house of our Father in heaven. 

Jesus, Saviour, full and free. 
All our joy we seek in Thee, 
Virgin-born of Judah's stem. 
Lowly laid in Bethlehem. 



Thabor covered with a cloud 
Hears the voice of God aloud ; 



WHY DO I REJECT THE AUTHORITY OF THE POPE? 511 



Men, immortals, God and Man, 
Meet in Thee, redeeming Lamb. 

Calvary sees Thee nailed on high. 
Hears thy pardoning, dying cry, 
O Thou fount of endless grace 
To the sinful human race ; 

The Mount of Olives has a voice, 
And all the hills and vales rejoice ; 
The Prince of Life resumes his own, 
The Son ascends the Father's throne. 

These are sacred spots, but Oh ! 
Such can still no human woe ; 
Jesus, Saviour, full and fi-ee. 
All our joys are found in Thee ! 

October 2mh, 1853. 



XIIL— WHY DO I EEJECT THE AUTHORITY OF THE POPE ? 

I. I reject the authority and headship of the Pope, because 
the Lord has not appointed him to be the head of the Church. 
Jesus is the one head, and the Scripture recognises no other. 
Where do you find in these records one word about popes, 
cardinals, archbishops, patriarchs, and all the rest of that 
worldly political conspiracy, which, under the name and 
guise of religion, usurps the rights of the Redeemer, and 
prostrates the liberties of the redeemed ? The whole system 
is false, unscriptural, and tyrannical. The pretensions of 
the popes are the boldest, most unscrupulous, blasphemous, 
the world ever saw. 

II. I reject the Pope and his entire system, because they 
are in the Scripture, and specially and repeatedly, condemned 
there. Who is the Antichrist that sitteth in the temple 



512 WHY DO I REJECT THE AUTHORITY OF THE POPE ? 

of Grod ? 'None other than the blaspheming pretender who 
claims to be the universal Head of the church — the prince 
too, and ruler of the kings of the earth {2 Thes. ii. S, 12.) 
This passage describes a great system, having the following 
lineaments. 1st. It is an apostacy. 2nd. It is headed up in 
the man of sin and son of perdition. 3rd. The ruler of the 
apostacy claims supremacy over all delegated gods, all that 
is called God, or worshipped, viz., aU kings, emperors, and 
magistrates of every name. 4th. He rules in the temple of 
Grod, uaog, that is, the church (1 Cor. iii. 16, 17 ; vi. 19 ; 
2 Cor. vi. 16 ; Eph. ii. 21). 5th. It is a mysterious system 
of iniquity. 6th. Satan energises and interpenetrates the 
entire system with his l}^ng wonders, so that the love of 
truth is entirely obKterated from the desires of man. 7th. 
The dupes of the system, under the strong delusion of the 
devil, are led to believe a lie instead of the truth of God. 
These are the marks of the apostac}^ in Scripture, and they 
seem like enough the whole constitution of the Papacy. 
Again we ask, where is the Babylon of the Apocalypse to 
be found ? The Imperial city, the queen of nations, sitting 
on seven hills, the impudent harlot with mystery written 
on her forehead ! On earth there is nothing so Kke this 
description as the Popish Church. 

III. I reject the Pope and his system, because they would 
rob me of the Bible. It is the gift of God to his fallen 
creatures, and no man or number of men has the right to 
take it from them. It is addressed to churches, and to indi- 
viduals, but there is no epistle to the Pope, or his cardinals, 
or his sacrificing priests. It belongs to the people, and it 
is a proof of their sin and apostacy if they }T.eld up to any 
body of men the privileges which God has bestowed upon 
them. 

ly. I reject and abhor the Papacy, because it contains false 



WHY DO I REJECT THE AUTHORITY OF THE POPE? 513 

doctrines. The entire system is so pervaded with error that 
the principles of truth and righteousness found in it are 
weakened, and almost extinguished. It holds the three 
creeds, indeed, but they are lost in the midst of the human 
corruptions that surround them. Their doctrine of sin, and 
of righteousnesss, is false ; their purgatory and penances, 
their man- worship, angel- worship, and relic-worship, are all 
foreign to the "Word of God, and in their own nature false 
and pernicious. This is the case with every doctrine which 
is peculiar to the system. 

V. I reject the system of the Papacy, because its laws, 
dogmas, and principles, as embodied in its constitution, and 
written on every page of its history, are intolerant and 
persecuting. The consciousness of the individual is swallowed 
up in it, and the influence of a single caste claiming, as in 
India, celestial privileges, usurps all, appropriates all, and 
rules all. This is necessarily connected with a sacrificing 
priesthood, which reduces the love and liberty of the Gospel 
dispensation to a mere system of Jewish or heathenish 
ritualism, which exactly increases its pretensions in propor- 
tion as it departs from the Gospel. 

YI. I reject the claims of the Papacy^ because it confounds 
virtue and vice, truth and falsehood, light and darkness. 
Look at their Popes, they are all holy ! yet a great number 
of them were the most cruel and bloody monsters the world 
ever saw, destitute of every virtue, and revelling in every 
crime. Look at the Saints of its calendars, and you will see 
men there who deserve the reprobation rather than the 
admiration of mankind. On the other hand, the virtues 
most praised in the New Testament, are condemned and 
reprobated ; for example, the searching of the Scriptures, and 
the refusing all creature worship. Can that system be of 

L L 



514 



PRAYER. 



God which perverts or removes the very foundations of all 
veneration and Divine worship ? 

YII. Finally, I reject the claims of that system, because, 
if the Old and New Testaments be true, it is idolatrous. They 
worship angels, saints, and images ; and, above all, they 
worship the Yirgin Mary, with an idolatrous veneration sur- 
passing all beKef. I have seen many lands, and many 
reKgions, and I venture to make the assertion that, if the 
worship given to the blessed Yirgin be not idolatry, idolatry 
is absolutely impossible. These are some of the reasons which 
make me reject the pretensions of the Popish system. 

Octoler 27th, 1858. 



XIY.— PRAYEE. 

In thee, 0 Lord, we live, and move, and have our being. 
The whole world is full of thy goodness and fatherly care. 
O Lord, we forget Thee, in the midst of Thy works, and turn 
aside to our own evil ways rather than to communion with 
THee. The hard and obdurate heart refuses to obey Thy holy 
commandments, and often becomes still more obdurate under 
the entreaties of Thy grace. But we would take refuge in 
Thy love, and in the pardoning mercy of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who loved us, and gave himself for us, to redeem us 
from the power and pollution of sin. Hear us, 0 merciful 
heavenly Father, and forgive us all our sins for His name's 
sake. Amen. 

October 1853. 



THE DOC!TKTNE OF THE LOGOS. 



515 



JN'OVEMBER. 



I. The Doctrine of the Aoyoc in both Covenants. II. The New Life in the 
German Churches — its Causes : 1. The Destruction of Eationahsm ; 2. A 
Better Ministry; 3. Missions; 4. The King; 5. Democracy; 6, The 
Kirchentag. III. 'H afnreXog // aXr)divy), the True Vine. — John xv. IV. 
German Literature — Difficulties. V. The Rain and the Thirsty Ground. 
— A Hymn. VI. The Philosophical Tendencies of the 18th Century. 



L THE DOCTRINE OF THE LOGOS.-.John i. 1. 

The sublime introduction of John's Gospel represents 
Jesus Christ as the Aoyog, the personal Word who reveals the 
unknown and invisible Grod. He is the manifester of the 
Creator, and the medium between Him and the creation. He 
was in the beginning with Grod, and by Him all things were 
created. He is Gtoc, God with the Father, ever manifesting 
in time, in creation, and in human nature, the eternal life 
of which He is the fulness and the fountain-head. In the 
fulness of the times. He assumed our nature (i. 14), that He 
might redeem and glorify the fallen race of Adam. Some of 
the ancient Jews held nearly similar views of the person of 
the Messiah, though much darker. Thus Philo : the Logos is 
Sevrspog Beoc, a second God, and hkmv rov ovrog, the image 
of the one existing God. He is the Dwelling-place of Divine 
Thought, or the Reason of the all- creating God. He is the 
Idea of all ideas, or the eternal all-including Prototype of 

L L 2 



516 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE LOGOS. 



the unity and totality of tlie creation. He is the creative 
power of God, by wMcli the universe is held together as 
with a band — the substratum and foundation of the world. 
He is also, according to Philo, the leader of Israel through 
the wilderness, and the conductor of the whole Jewish 
economy. Nevertheless, Philo differs from John in the 
following points : 1st. According to him, the Logos is not 
truly and properly God, but a unique kind of being, neither 
truly creature nor creator. 2nd. Philo is not clear as to the 
personality of the Logos. He sometimes represents Him as 
the mere power and wisdom of the Deity ; and at others as a 
self -existing person. We have still clearer views of the per- 
son of the Logos in the Targum of Onkelos on the Pentateuch, 
and that of J onathan ben Uziel on the Prophets. They were 
written about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. Here 
we have the word h^lD^D (verbum, Aoyoc,) and H^Ot^ the 
dwelling-place of God (Habitatio), described as a real and 
universal mediator between God and his people. They use 
Memra and Shekinah as identical, and substitute them often 
for the Jehovah of the original text ; thus, ISTumb. xxiii. 21, 
" Jehovah his God is with him, and the cry of a king is in 
him," — Onkelos expounds, " The Memra of Jehovah their 
God is with them to help them, and the Shekinah of their 
king is in the midst of them." Onkelos distinguishes very 
clearly between the word spoken and the personal Memra (see 
Maier on John i. 1), and speaks of the latter as a personal 
independent being — as the angel of the Lord who led the 
people, and the Divine Mediator between God and man. 

So also Jonathan contemplates the Word as a person, and 
attributes to him aU personal offices and attributes. He 
explains 2 Sam. vi. 7, The Memra of God struck Uzziah 
there ;" 1 Kings viii. 50, " Forgive thy people wherein they 
have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions which 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE LOGOS. 



517 



theyliave committed against thy Memra xviii. 24, "1 will 
call upon the name of the Lord, then will he send his Memra 
and bring down fire 2 Kings xiii. 23, he explains, Je- 
hovah looked graciously upon his people in the Memra 
xix. 29, " Thou hast tempted my Memra Isa. vi. 8, ''I 
heard the voice of the Memra of the Lord xxx. 27, 28, ^'The 
Memra of the Lord is like a consuming fire ; his Memra is 
like an overflowing stream." Compare Isa. Ixv. 3 ; Ixvi. 13 ; 
Jer. xix. 23, S2 ; xxxi. 41, and many others. From these 
it is manifest that Jonathan held the Messiah to be a Divine 
person, pre- existent from the beginning, and mediating in 
all things between Grod and the people. I have now before 
me jN^ork's " Eabbinische Quellen," in which he shows by 
copious extracts that the ancient Jews believed in the Messiah 
nearly as we do. He gives the following heads with the 
proofs. 1. The Messiah shall possess the Divine nature. 
11. He shall also be a real and proper Man. III. He shall 
fulfil the three offices of King, Redeemer, and High-Priest. 
lY. He shaU be without sin. Y. He shall sufier for the sins 
of the people. YL He shall descend into hell. YII. He 
shall ascend into heaven. YIII. He is the true King. IX. 
He is to abolish the ofierings and the law. X. The Messiah 
shall introduce a new law. XL He is to exercise the func- 
tions of a high-priest. XII. His death shall be a vicarious 
sin-ofiering. XIII. Messias shall be the bruiser of the ser- 
pent. XIY. Messias shall be the Judge of the world. From 
these we may see clearly enough that the ancient Jews 
differed essentially from the modern, respecting the person 
of the Messias. The doctrine of the Logos, therefore, as we 
find it in J ohn, is nothing more than the fuller and clearer 
development of the views of the ancient church concerning 
the Messias. Here, as in other things, the New Testament is 
the completion of the Old, the gospel of grace, the end of 



518 THE NEW LIFE IN THE GERMAN CHURCHES. 

the fiery law, and Moses unveiled, briglitens into the glorious 
person of the Divine mediator. The two covenants can no 
more be separated than the soul and body from the person of 
a living man. The ray of Divine promise existed from the 
beginning ; it became clearer and brighter as the ages rolled 
on ; and in the fulness of the times burst forth in dazzling 
lustre in the Sun of righteousness. Jesus is the same yester- 
day, to day, and for ever. The ancient church cherished the 
same hopes as we do, and rested for eternity on the same 
glorious Deliverer. His person is the stem on which all the 
branches are unfolded from the beginning, and from which 
the sap of life eternally flows — the connecting unity of the 
ages, covenants, and dispensations of Grod ; the eternal centre 
around which the purpose of the Creator, Redeemer, and 
Glorifier unfolds its various parts on the theatre of creation. 
This is a Redeemer worthy of our love, and in Him we have a 
gift worthy of the munificence of God. 

" Jesus, my Lord, my chief delight, 
For thee I long, for thee I pray, 
Amid the shadows of the night, 
Amid the business of the day. 

Thou ai't the glorious gift of God 
To sinners weaiy and disti'essed, 
The fii'st of all his gifts bestowed, 
And certain pledge of all the rest." 

November lOth, 1853. 



II.— THE NEW LIFE IN THE GERMAN CHURCHES. 

Change seems to be the law of the universe. Growth, 
decay, and reproduction move in eternal cycles, from the 



THE NEW LIFE IN THE GERMAN CHURCHES. 519 

ephemerae and animalculaD under our feet, to the worlds and 
systems of worlds which compose the universe. Nor is the 
church, which is the vessel of His mercy and the heir of 
eternal life, exempt from this universal law. In grace and 
in nature. Dens hahet horas et moras, and the times and the 
seasons are in his hands. See the holy apostolic Church, 
full of life, and vigour, and joy ! Terror could not appal her 
in the path of righteousness ; Judaism, heathenism, and 
worldly tyranny fell before her persevering love ; the name 
of her beloved Master was borne on all the winds of heaven to 
the extremities of the known world : and in a few years the 
triumphs of the cross were published in all nations and 
tongues. Such was the force of Divine grace, as it burst forth 
fresh from the bosom of God, and such was the beauty, power, 
and glory of the Apostolic Church in which it dwelt. Ages 
rolled on ; the Church became wedded to the world, and 
sought her succour and strength, not in her living Head, but 
in the kings and princes of the world. She ceased to suffer 
and began to enjoy, thus forgetting the first principles of the 
present dispensation ; and from this worldly ease and indif- 
ference, the transition to a deeper apostacy became easy and 
indeed necessary. Her gold became dim, and her fine gold 
was changed. Faith was changed into superstition, love into 
the meretricious embrace of worldly power ; the hope of the 
Lord's coming, which sustained hitherto, yielded to the fasci- 
nation of human glory ; and, in one word, the holy, suffering 
Apostolic Bride sunk into the apostate, superstitious, pleasure- 
loving harlot of the middle ages. What a change ! The 
doctrines became corrupted, the morals of the people were 
tainted, and out of the general confusion arose to the surface 
of the dark muddy sea the Antichrist of the West, whose 
reign had been foretold in the Scriptures of truth. He 
reigned and prospered for ages, till the nations became weary 



520 THE NEW LIFE IN THE GERMAN CHURCHES. 

of his cliains ; and, at the cost of oceans of blood and treasure, 
Germany, England, and other nations, asserted the right to 
look up to the clear heaven without the intervention of the 
Pope. The fetters were broken. Germany heard the voice 
of Luther, and the foreign yoke of priestly tyranny fell from 
the Teutonic neck. This was the Reformation. Zeal, valour, 
and faith walked on the earth again, with something like 
apostolic glory ; and Christianity, awakening from a sleep of 
ages, and throwing off the incrustations of superstition, became 
assimilated to the faith of the Primitive Church. But this 
glory did not continue long. Coldness crept over the re- 
formed Church of Germany; and, during this period of 
slumber, her enemy was acquiring new strength. The Jesuits 
Avent forth to add new triumphs to the Popish Church, and 
their success was, for a time, marvellous indeed ; but even the 
Popish nations could not be led to the belief that Jesuitry 
was Christianity, and so the kings and the popes united and 
the Jesuits fell. I^or was this any advantage to the Pro- 
testant Church of Germany. The attacks of the Jesuits had 
kept them from slumber, and now they yielded to corruption 
and death of every land. Rationalism ruled in the Univer- 
sities, indifference in the pulpit, and infidelity among the 
people. This was the state of things generally until lately, 
and in many places it is bad enough still. JS^evertheless, we 
have great reason to bless God there is a great change taking 
place for the better, and new life is breaking forth in many 
places most wonderfully and most unexpectedly. But what 
are some of the causes of this change ? I. Rationalism is 
dead and buried. This is not owing to any general effort on 
the part of the more Christian portion of the community. On 
the contrary, it got its death-blow from an unbeliever. The 
people were weary with the farce of rationalistic expositions. 
The Bible is a serious book, to say the least of it, and appeals 



THE NEW LIFE IN THE GERMAN CHURCHES. 521 

to the higher and nobler principles of man. These Rationalists 
admit no miracles, and hence prophecies, signs, wonders, 
all must be explained on natural principles. The birth of 
Jesus was not miraculous, his cures were mere tricks, his 
casting out devils an appeal to Jewish prejudice, his death 
was not a sacrifice (if he did die), and his resurrection was 
only a cunningly devised fable. The people listened for a 
time to all this, but they soon perceived that the position of 
these expositors could not be maintained ; for, if all their 
expositions were just and true, the Apostles must have been 
knaves and deceivers. If the Apostles were honest men, 
Rationalism must be false. This conviction gradually forced 
itself into the public mind, and Strauss gave the system the 
death-blow in his " Life of Christ not, indeed, to establish 
anything better did Strauss labour, but he has the merit of 
honesty, in that he calls that fable which he believes to be 
fable. II. A new and better race of preachers has risen up 
in Gfermany. The grace of God has been manifest and abun- 
dant in the conversion and sanctification of many excellent 
men and ministers, so that the pulpits resound once more with 
the doctrines of grace and the justifying righteousness of 
Christ. In many places, indeed, all is dead still ; but that a 
great change has taken place for the better, must be acknow- 
ledged by all. III. The Missions of the Church have exer- 
cised a good influence on the ministers and people. This is 
natural ; for in blessing others, we are blessed ourselves. 
The German Home Mission is a gigantic institution for 
reviving and propagating the spirit of piety through the entire 
land. lY. The King of Prussia lends his whole influence to 
the cause of evangelical religion. This has given a great 
impetus to the religious movement in the right direction. 
Y. The wars of the French Revolution had reduced the 
nations to the extremity of sufiering ; and, in the midst of the 



522 



THE TRUE VINE. 



judgments of the Lord, they began to learn righteousness. 
The movements of 1848, also, shook the thrones of the conti- 
nent, and revealed the fierce violence of a godless democracy ; 
and now the fear of democrats is literally leading princes, 
nobles, and the upper classes generally, to the fear of the 
Lord. Democracy, violence, and infidelity were on the one 
side, and hence royalty, religion, and respectability naturally 
enough took the other. VI. The Kirchentag is now exer- 
cising a prodigious influence in Germany, and it is likely to 
increase more and more. This great annual meeting of the 
clergy is voluntary, and seeks to exercise no legal nor disci- 
pKnary power ; but the questions which it discusses are of the 
most important kind, and its decisions and recommendations 
of immense moral weight. At the last meeting (which was 
in Berlin) the spirit of unity, forbearance, and brotherly 
love was admirable. The King was present at the discus- 
sions, and thus the whole influence of royalty was added to 
the religious movement. These are some of the subordinate 
causes of the present revival in the German Church ; but the 
chief source of all holiness and love on the earth, must be 
the work of the Holy Spirit of God, who alone can breathe 
upon the dry bones and organize them into an army of living 
men. 

November 20th, 1853. 



Ill— H ajuTreXoe a\ridivri.—TKE TKUE VINE. 

Glorious word from the lips of Jesus ! He is the vine, and 
we are the branches ; He is the foundation, and we are the 
living stones ; He is the head, and we are the members of His 
risen, glorified humanity. This is the noblest, strongest, and 



THE TRUE VINE. 



523 



most wonderful of all unions. Life is united to death, eter- 
nity to time, majesty to meanness, and the infinite perfections 
of the Godhead to the weakness, wants, and necessities of his 
people. We are in Him ; and His Spirit dwells in us. This 
is the mystery of godliness and was commenced in the incar- 
nation of Christ. Without this union with the Living Head, 
victory over ourselves, and victory over the enemies of our 
souls, is impossible. Our holiness, strength, and assurance 
flow only from Him. If the branch be cut off from the vine 
it dies ; and the soul that departs from Jesus, or, on account 
of unfruitfulness, is cast out, most certainly perishes. The 
fountain of his life is cut off, and he finds no supplies of 
grace any more. Like a branch, he may retain some green- 
ness for a time ; but, in the act of separation, the withering 
has begun, and a very short time shall make it ready for the 
burniag. The vine strikes its roots deeply into the earth. Do 
we live in the assurance that we are rooted and grounded in the 
eternal love of Gfod, who chose us from the beginning, and re- 
deemed us in the fulness of time ? The vine is far from being a 
beautiful tree ; it has no form nor comeliness, yet it brings forth 
the most delicious fruits. It is in this respect like Jesus, who 
was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and 
acquainted with grief ; yet the blessings of His love are beyond 
all price, and the fruit of His Spirit more precious than rubies. 
The vine is filled with sap, which flows through the roots, the 
stem, the branches, and the leaves. This is like the cement 
in the temple, the blood in the human body, and denotes the 
all-pervading spirit of life in the redeemed body of Christ. 
He is the cement, the blood, and the sap. Without Him the 
temple falls to pieces, without Him the body faints and dies, 
without Him the vine yields neither leaves nor fruit. He is 
the one common life which fills all the members, great and 
small, far off or near at hand, with the manifold fulness of 



524 



THE TRUE VINE. 



the Head — the ever-present, all-pervading unity which . con- 
nects the distant extremes with one another, and leads up the 
hopes and aspirations of the worshippers to the glories of the 
celestial throne. The leaves of the vine are beautiful, and 
form an agreeable shade in the heat of the day. How often I 
have dined under the shady foliage of the vine. Is there 
anything on earth more beautiful than the solemn, public 
profession of the members of the Church ? See those thou- 
sands assembled around the table of the Lord ; one heart ani- 
mates them all, and it is overflowing with love to God and 
man; one voice ascends from them all, sweeter than the 
angels' song on the plains of Bethlehem — 

" 0 Love Divine, how sweet thou art I 
When shall I find my willing heart 

All taken up by Thee ! 
I thirst, I faint, I die to prove 
The greatness of redeeming Love, 

The Love of Christ to me ! " 

These leaves are very refreshing. The songs of the pil- 
grims, their solemn assemblies before Jehovah, their sacra- 
mental vows, their confession of sins, their strong crying and 
tears — these are the lamp through which the oil shines — these 
are the leaves of the tree of life, beneath which the fruits 
ripen under the Sun of righteousness — these are the white 
robes of our heavenly calling, which we are to preserve un- 
spotted from the world. How various are the branches of 
the vine. They are large and small, long and short, strong 
and weak ; they are straight, bent, and crooked, of all forms, 
figures, and dimensions conceivable ; but they are all one, 
and all living through their union with the stem. So are the 
members of Christ. Various in number, size, and brightness 
as the stars of heaven, their light is one ; diversified as the 



GERMAN POETICAL LITERATURE. 



525 



branclies, twigs, buds, and leaves of the vine, their life, fruit, 
and flavour are all the same ; they are of different ages, 
nations, and generations ; their languages, colour, and coun- 
tries are all different ; yet in Jesus Christ, their Living Yine, 
they form one glorious unity, in which all diversities and 
extremes are united. They all grow together on the same tree 
of life ; they all shine together in the same radiant heaven ; 
they all die the same death unto sin, and show the same resur- 
rection to righteousness. Let us grow in grace. Let us pant 
after more of the life of God, by which we may become more 
dead to the world and more assimilated to our heavenly 
Master. There is no limit here. The way of holiness is end- 
less, and the most accomplished traveller sees heights of glory 
in the distance still ; onward, then, towards the everlasting 
goal — Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. 

" Onward, still onward ! arising, ascending 
To the right hand of power and joy never-ending." 



IV.— GEEMAN POETICAL LITERATURE. GREAT 
DIFFICULTIES. 

Till the time of the E-eformation, the Grerman language was 
a barbarous dialect, and unfit for the purposes of a noble 
national Kterature. Luther's Bible gave it the first great 
impulse, which has been rolling on and vibrating, manifold 
and in all directions, till the present time. It is now the 
language of the deepest philosophy in the world ; and seems, 
for poetry and prose, science and sentiment, religious enthu- 
siasm and popular debate, to be as pliable, if not so musical, 
as the ancient Greek. It is spoken by seventy millions of 
men, and its present influence over the literature of the 
world is prodigious. But the enthusiasm of the Reformation 



62G 



GERMAN POETICAL IJTERATURE. 



subsided ; the glorious and almost boundless treasures of their 
church-poetry remained, it is true, and in this respect, no 
church or nation can compare with them ; but indifferentism 
had succeeded to their religious wars ; a meagre and misty 
theology prevailed in the church and the universities ; while 
the ennobling political feelings of independence and personal 
responsibility, were nearly extinguished in the nation. When 
Klopstock appeared, the upper classes were absolutely ashamed 
of their own language ; at all the courts and in the influential 
circles of society, the common language was French, while 
the German was, as degraded and barbarous, condemned to the 
vulgar, uneducated masses. A Kterature apart from religion 
there was none. The two churches stood at the greatest pos- 
sible distance from each other ; nor was there in any depart- 
ment of literature any one name that commanded the respect 
and admiration of both. 

II. As a general rule the fine arts are but the reflex or the 
development of national glory, so that in the poetry, music, 
and painting, we may contemplate as in a mirror the progress 
of the nation, their strength, manhood, and glory ; thus the 
time when Greece attained its highest Kterary glory was im- 
mediately after the overthrow of the Persians, when the 
national life, collected, overflowing, and triumphant, sent 
forth such wonderful streams in all directions. The Eoman 
character is seen clearly enough in Yirgil and Horace ; Spanish 
literature rose and decKned with the poKtical importance of 
the nation ; the literary periods of England were uni- 
formly the periods of her greatest poKtical, religious, and 
military glory. Thus it is a general rule that the flue 
arts are a development of the national life, where the man- 
ners of the age, the interior energy of the community, and 
the spirit of the people are represented. This is not the case 
in Germany. Her literature created the national feelings and 



GERMAN POETICAL LITERATURE. 



527 



glory, not these her literature. Morally, politically, and 
physically, Germany was dead, when, like a new life arising 
out of corruption, her bright morning broke forth in Kterary 
splendour after the long and dreary night. Goethe's life is 
the history of German literature, as Klopstock's appearance 
was at Goethe's birth, and Schiller was Goethe's friend, and 
these three were then, and are still, the brightest stars in the 
firmament of German fame. The difficulties in the way of 
these men were very great. 

I. One of the first requisites to literary, and especially 
dramatic greatness, is national character ; not a misty, vague 
feeling of some ambiguous kind of nationality, but a clear, 
consistent, well-defined, and universally known, felt, and 
realized nationality, which is the boast and glory of the 
people, with which they are satisfied, and from which their 
images, figures, histories, fables, and traditions are drawn. 
Such a nationality had Greece and England, and hence their 
literary supremacy in the department of poetry, and espe- 
cially the drama. Goethe sinks before Shakspeare, indeed, 
but the difierence is to be attributed to the circumstances 
more than the men. Think of the British poet in the midst 
of the nation victorious over inward and outward enemies ; 
baffling, beating, and triumphing over the warlike Spaniards 
and the insidious Italians — the enemies of their faith and the 
enviers of their national prosperity ; think of him in the 
great capital, under the eye of the great Queen of whom the 
nation were so justly proud ; surrounded by historic names, 
families, and monuments of all kinds, embodying and appeal- 
ing to the proudest, noblest, and most clearly defined national 
character which ever existed ; the nation united, fervid, and 
religious, determined to defend their isle against the attacks 
of the Spaniard, the pope, or the devil himself ; an immense 
body of traditions, histories, and heroes (well known and 



528 



GETIMAN POETICAL LITERATURE. 



understood by the people) from which to draw his materials ; 
and yon may imagine how favourable the circumstances were 
for the wonderful creative genius of Shakspeare. How dif- 
ferent with Klopstock, Goethe, and Schiller ! The nation 
divided into many little courts, at which, and in the upper 
ranks generally, the French had displaced the Grerman lan- 
guage ; no clear, well-defined nationality through which a 
poet could body forth the sentiments of a people ; no great, 
recent national enthusiasm and glory ; no compact, well- 
understood body of traditions, from which indeed the nation 
was, and still is, far too much divided ; the two great rehgious 
parties in unapproachable separation, so that the idea of com- 
mon masters, to whom they must both do homage, seemed an 
absurdity ; yet, in these most depressing circumstances, the 
genius of the nation broke forth irresistibly, subduing all 
opposition, subjugating the intellectual of all parties, creating 
a profound feeling of German nationality and unity among 
millions of men, and elevating the language of fatherland to 
wonderful perfection and beauty. We have a history — Ger- 
many has only records ; and our long historic life is orna- 
mented by more poets, heroes, orators, and statesmen, than 
any other on the earth, and this, indeed, is the great advan- 
tage of our poets. 

II. It is admitted by all that German literature, in almost 
every branch, rose and flourished among the Protestants. 
The Roman Catholics have had no great poets, orators, and 
philosophers. From Leibnitz to Schelling and Schleiermacher, 
the long line of deep and often fearless audacious thinkers 
have been Protestants ; no good German poet was a CathoKc ; 
Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Klopstock, Herder, &c., were all of 
the Reformed Church. Even in music and painting, to 
which the gorgeous spectacles of Popery are so favourable, 
the Protestants have, with only a few exceptions, been the 



THE RAIN AND THE THIRSTY GROUND. 529 

superiors ; and tlie same important truth is proved by the 
fact that in the mixed imiversities, such as Bonn, where 
seven-eighths of the students are Catholics, the majority of 
the professors are Protestants. It is a fact, then, of which the 
German Protestant Church has reason to be proud, that the 
literary and historic men of Germany are peculiarly their 
own. 

November 28th, 1853. 



v.— THE RAIN AND THE THIRSTY GROUND.— Is. xliv. 3; 
Rev. XXI. 6 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 25. 

He that has travelled in the East knows the force and 
beauty of these texts. The sands are rolling round you like 
a tempest-tossed ocean ; the hot wind sweeping along charged 
with sand- dust, which enters into every crevice and threatens 
to blind and suffocate you at once ; the sun sends forth his 
fierce radiance from a burning, brazen sky ; wells there are 
none for many a weary hour, and you have already drained 
the last hot drops from your sheepskin bottles ; the children 
shout for water, and you have none to give them ; even the 
Arabs, born and bred in the eastern clime, take refuge under 
every bush, or rock, or sand-hill, which promises shelter from 
the solar rays. How natural and sweet the assurance, He 
is the shadow of a great rock in a weary land ; " He is the 
rock of our strength on which the weary soul reposes when 
the tempest of wrath sweeps away every refuge of lies. 

" Rock of ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee." 

This Eock, too, as in the days of old, is the fountain-head of 

M M 



530" THE RAIN AND THE THIRSTY GROUND. 

waters for the parched land. It is good that the land parched, 
for he that is not thirsty will never drink, though the waters 
may flow in abundance. There is, indeed, no want of water, 
for from the days of Pentecost the streams of refreshing have 
been making glad the city of our Grod ; there is no want of 
promises of grace and good- will on the part of our Grod, but 
the thirsty souls are few to whom these streams are dear. 
There is too much hungering and thirsting after worldly 
pleasure and amusements — after honour, fame, and earthly 
glory — after gold, and silver, and the applause of men — after 
houses, lands, and luxurious enjoyments of all kinds. These 
seem to be more desii'ed b}" many than Pentecostal showers ; 
these satisfy our worldly minds more than the love of the 
Father, the presence of the Son, and the communion of the 
Holy Grhost. How can the holy Grod give us His Spirit ? — 
the vessel is not prepared for the new wine ; our cold carnal 
hearts shrink from close contact with the Kving God ; we are 
not willing to be filled with all the fulness of Grod ! Where 
is the people who, like dry and parched land, sigh after the 
refreshing streams, and, like David, cry night and day after 
God, the living God ? He that is satisfied with himseK will 
not seek after the fulness of God. He that created alone can 
deliver us, and the power of His love alone break the delusions 
with which sin has enchained us ; we will not sigh, cry, and 
pray, though God has commanded us ; we will not enter into 
the mind and heart of Jesus in holy hatred of sin, though 
He died to redeem us from its power ; we are like enchanted 
people who walk in a vain show, to whom the reaKties of 
death, eternity, and the coming of the Lord are as dreams ! 
Be not deceived. "Without this water of life you can bear no 
fruit to God ; you are dead, withered branches, and may soon 
be cut ofi* for the burning ! Awful thought, brother ! and 
yet there is life, and love, and peace for thee in Jesus — in 



PHILOSOPHICAL CHARACTER OF THE 18TH CENTURY. 531 

His grace, in His cross, in His glorious and adorable person, 
so tliat tlion art without excuse if thou dost not ask, and seek, 
and knock at the gate of mercy. Heaven and earth cannot 
compensate for the want of this water. If any man have 
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. Seek these 
heavenly showers, and the thirsty heart will be refreshed, and 
buds of righteousness will begin to open among the leaves of 
your profession. 

Holy Spirit, heavenly Guest, 
Satisfy my aching breast ; 
Fill me with thy quickening powers, 
Send me Pentecostal showers ; 
Lead me, guide me, in thy love. 
Till I reach the realms above. 

StQl the tumults of my soul. 
Make my wounded spirit whole ; 
Let thy holy heavenly fire 
All my heart and soul inspire ; 
Lead me, guide me, in thy love, 
Till I reach the realms above. 

Come and shed thy gifts abroad. 
Blessings from the living God ; 
Thine the glory, thine the might, 
Thou mine everlasting light ; 
Ever helping in the past. 
Thou wilt be my help at last. 



VI.— PHILOSOPHICAL CHARACTER OF THE EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY. 

As to philosophy. The three countries in which the princi- 
ples of philosophy were discussed at all, were England, France, 
and Germany. England led the van, as she always does in 

M M 2 



532 PHILOSOPHICAL CHARACTER OF THE 18TH CENTURY. 

discoveries of all kinds, in poetry, in science, and in the social 
virtues also ; but she never carries out her principles fully. 
Hence one party says she is always inconsistent, and afraid to 
carry out her principles to their legitimate conclusions ; and 
the other party, that she is not like the school-boy, who 
pushes rules to extremes, but the scholar, who knows how to 
guard and limit great principles. 

The philosophical tendency of England in the eighteenth 
century may be justly named deistical. By this we mean the 
tendency to oppose the positive revelation of the will of God, 
as contained in the Bible. From Tindal to Bolingbroke, a 
multitude of writers appeared in England who, in all con- 
ceivable ways, and with immense talent and acuteness, under 
the names of deists^ Christian deists, and free-thinkers, denied 
the fact and even the possibility of a written revelation. 
They claimed the name of philosophers, and pretended to be 
guided solely by the principles of reason. They never became 
popular, nor did they seek to disturb society by carrying out 
their principles into practice ; and if at one time the public 
mind seemed to be tinged with their sentiments, it was only 
for a moment, and the Christian's doctrines became more dear 
to the nation, and more deeply rooted than ever. The deists 
were met and overthrown on the fair field of reason and 
argument, so that since Bolingbroke no respectable wiiter has 
appeared to take up their cause. Compared with the deists 
of other nations, the English appear to great advantage ; 
they are more moderate, less wildly speculative, and less 
offensive in their morality. During this century the moralists 
advocated the theoiy of happiness being the end and test of 
virtue ; a refined kind of materialism pervaded their writings, 
and the spiritual and intellectual nature of man was neces- 
sarily neglected, if not absolutely degraded. Virtue's reward 
was the feeling that we had acted virtuously. These are the 



PHILOSOPHICAL CHARACTER OF THE 18TH CENTURY. 533 



two greatest philosopliical tendencies of the eighteenth century 
in Britain. In France it was very different. The principles 
of the English deists were widely sown in that land, and 
brought forth harvests of blood. The steadiness which marks 
the EngKshman was wanting there, and the negative opposi- 
tional principles assumed the most alarming forms. We 
distinguish three streams in the currents of French philosophy : 
1st. The purely negative, of which Yoltaire is the proper 
representative. He is a true Mephistophiles, who mocks at 
everything and cares for nothing ; there may be a God, or 
there may not ; heaven and hell are of the like importance to 
him, as they form the subjects of ridicule and raillery. These 
men are well qualified to attack, as they have themselves 
nothing to defend ; and for a time the influence of that party 
in France was immense. But it did not continue long. There 
was no system, no soul, no noble views of man and the uni- 
verse, no great principles which a nation could take hold of; 
it was all a mere mocking negation, and speedily yielded to 
something more tangible. 2nd. This was atheism, positive, 
doctrinal atheism, which found so many advocates in France. 
The mind must have something to rest on. We do not spend 
our life on a bridge — ^we must go back or forward ; and the 
mocking doubts of Voltaire and his school could not long 
satisfy the nation. Hence the doctrinaires, who formed a 
system of unbelief and blasphemy which they announced with 
the vehemence and confidence of prophets. 3rd. There was 
a third stream opened up in French philosophy by Rousseau, 
a true noble of nature's making. He was the man of feeling 
and heart, the most eloquent writer in France, and the most 
versatile genius in the world. His influence was immense, 
and, compared with that of the other schools, was decidedly 
beneficial. He believed in Grod, virtue, and a future world, 
and in Germany his ideas took deep root. He shook, in fact, 



534 PHILOSOPHICAL CHARACTER OF THE 18TH CENTURY. 



the entire systems of education in the civilised world, and 
many of his principles have been adopted in most of the 
educational systems of modern times. These three streams 
of public opinion in France were very different from one 
another ; but they were all flowing from the same source of 
infidelity, and all sought to break down and submerge all the 
positive principles of politics and religion. It is therefore an 
indubitable fact, that the immense impulse given to infidel 
principles was commenced in England. Her deistical writers 
laid the train, and the French democrats applied the spark. 
England got out of the scrape in time, but France and Grer- 
many were overwhelmed and demoralised by the wildest 
principles of democracy and unbelief. 



a^^oelology; thoughts on the holy angels. 



535 



DECEMBER. 



1. Angelology; or, Thoughts on the Holy Angels. Objections Answered: 
1. The Name, ' AyyeXog^ and its Applications ; 2. What do we know of 
Angels ? 3. Objections to the Doctrines of Angels ; 4. Various Questions 
concerning Angels. II. Klopstock: his Character and Poetry. III. The 
Sighing of the Soul after Jesus. IV. Inspiration; Grerman Notions. 
V. Wieland. VI. German Celebrity ; Learned Men and Critics. VII. 
A Short Conversation on the Question, "Is it not possible to teach Theology 
profitably?" VIII. The Pilgrim's Wants and the Pilgrim's Song. IX. 
Dec. 25th, the Birth of Christ; 1. Prophecy and Promise; 2. Offices; 
3. All Varieties meet in the Manger. X. Are the Jews under a Curse? 
XL Hope ; a Hymn. XII. A Wish. 



f.— ANGELOLOGY : THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY ANGELS. 

I. The iianie"Ay-y£Xoc, and its Scripture applications. 

— We observe, tlie name means Messenger, and the message 
is ayyeXia, to which add ev, good, and you have Evangeliumy 
the " good news," the Gospel. Angel is therefore a name 
of office, and is applied (1.) to prophets. Is. xlii. 19 ; Hag. 

i. 13 ; Mai. iii. 1,. (John the Baptist). (2.) To priests, MaL 

ii. 7, (comp. Gal. iv. 14). (3.) To ministers, teachers or 
bishops of the New Testament Church, Eev. i. 20. There 
is no good reason for believing that the pillar of cloud, Ex. 
xiv. 19, or anywhere else, is called an angel. Much less is. 
the destroying pestilence, 2 Sam. xxiv. 16, &c., or anywhere- 
else, ever personified with the glorious name, the angel of 
Jehovah'' (2 Kings xix. 35). (4.) It is applied to ordinary 



536 axgelology; thoughts on the holy angei^. 

messengers (Job i. 14 ; 1 Sam. xi. 3 ; Luke vii. 24, ix, 52). 
Tliese passages show clearly that the word angel is a 'permnal 
official name, and can properly denote only rational beings. 
But (5) it is generally used in the Bible to denote the 
heavenly hosts — those glorious beings created by God, and 
endowed with high and noble faculties, for the purpose of 
executing his commands and glorifying his name (Heb. i= 
14). (6.) It is given to Jesus, the Mediator of the ISTew 
Covenant, He is the Angel of the Covenant (Mai. iii. 1), who 
came to reveal the treasures of the New Testament grace to 
manldnd. This is the explanation of the passages where 
Divine names, acts, titles, and attributes are attributed to 
this angel. Jesus, the Eternal Son of Grod, the Revealer, 
and the Word of Wisdom, is this glorious, immortal, and 
uncreated Angel of Jehovah. That the Mediator was the 
leader of the old dispensation, we know, directly from the 
New Testament, John i. 11, (his own property or possession,) 
xii. 41 ; He is therefore the subject of the glorious scene. 
Is. vi. 1 ; 1 Cor. x. 4, 9 ; 1 Pet. i. 2 ; Heb. xi. 26 ; xii. 
25 — 27. As there is a worker, so there must be an agent; 
as there is an invisible, glorious, unapproachable God, so 
there must be a manifester to reveal Him ; as there is a place 
of mercy and purpose of Divine love in the bosom of the 
Father, so there must be an executor to accomplish it. 
This is the Angel of the Covenant, the Son of the Father, 
the glorious Mediator between God and the creation, in 
whom alone from the beginning in creation, as weU as in 
providence and redemption, the counsels and glories of the 
Godhead have been made known. He talked with our first 
parents in Paradise (Gen. iii. 8) ; Abraham interceded with 
him before the destruction of Sodom (Gen. xviii. 16, 23) ; 
He arrested the hand of the faithful patriarch (Gen. xxii. 
11, 12); He appeared to Jacob in the glorious vision at 



ANGELOLOGY : THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY ANGELS. 537 

Bethel (Gen. xxxi. 11, xxviii. 18), which has yielded the 
Christian Church one of her noblest canticles. 

" O God of Bethel, by whose hand 
Thy people still are fed, 
Who through this weary pilgrimage 
Hast all our fathers led ! " 

This glorious Angel of the Covenant it was who redeemed 
Jacob from all evil, and blessed his grandsons Ephraim 
and Manasseh (Gren. xlviii. 15, 16) ; who revealed Himself 
to Moses, gloriously, in the burning bush (Ex. iii. 2, comp. 
Acts vii. 20) ; who led Israel out of Egypt, and through the 
wilderness, and into the promised land, with all his glorious 
signs, wonders, and mighty deeds (Ex. xiv. 19 ; xxiii. 20, 21 ; 
xxxii. 34 ; xxxiii. 1, 12 ; Deut. xx. 16 ; Is. Ixiii. 5) ; who 
uttered the ten commandments from the glories of the burn- 
ing mountain (Ex. xix. 18) ; who, during the ancient 
covenant, drew nearer and nearer the children of men as 
the ages of time rolled over the church, brightening his 
promises, enlarging our hopes, and ripening the purpose 
of His love, until He who walked in Paradise in the cool of 
the day, and stood upon Sinai in the midst of the fire, 
appeared as the Babe of Bethlehem, the Son of the Virgin, 
the Incarnate God, for whose coming all ages and generations 
had been waiting and making preparation ; in whom all the 
promises, prophecies, counsels, and covenants of God should 
have their end and accomplishment ; and to whom all the 
prophets, from the beginning, bore witness. So much for 
the various applications of the word angel. 

II. What do you know about angels? Answer. (1.) We 
know that they exist and form part of the glorious and hea- 
venly kingdom, in which the pure and holy God manifests the 
fulness of His wisdom, power, and love. This we learn from 



538 



ANGELOLOGY : THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY ANGELS. 



the Bible, from universal tradition, and from the discoveries 
of the human reason. (2.) We know from the Scriptures 
that they are holy, wise, and powerful beings, who find their 
pleasui'e and delight in doing the ^"ill of God ; that they are 
very numerous (Dan. vii. 10 ; Ps. Ixviii. 17 ; 2 Kings ii. 
16, 17 ; Heb. xii. 22; Jude 14 ; Rev. v. 11 ; Matt. xxvi. 53) ; 
that they are strong and powerful servants of God (2 Thess. 
i. 7 ; 2 Peter ii. 11) ; that they are constantly around the 
person of Jesus Christ (John i. 51) ; at His conception (Matt. i. 
20, 21) ; His flight into Egypt (Matt. ii. 13—20) ; His temp- 
tation (Matt. iv. 11) ; His agony in the garden (Lukexxii. 43) ; 
Bis resuiTection (Matt, xxviii. 2 — 7 ;) His ascension (Acts 
i. 10) ; they form part of his train when he comes again. We 
know that they are the guardians of the saints (Heb. i. 14 ; 
Ps. xxxiv. 7 ; Acts xii. 7 — 15 ; Gen. xxxi. 1 — 3 ; Zech. iii. 
4 — 10 ; and probably Matt, xviii. 10). This does not encou- 
rage superstition, as we are not to invoke them or pray to 
them, or render them any reKgious service whatever. Angel- 
worship, martyi^-worship, image-worship, man-worship, Ma- 
riolatry, are pure idolatry, and forbidden in the Word of God. 
Daniel would have faced the lions, and the thi^ee childi-en the 
fiery furna^^e, rather than worship anything but God. They 
preside over kingdoms, nations, and provinces, according to 
the appointment of God. See and comj)are Dan. x. 5 — 21 ; 
xii. 1 ; Zech. i. 8 — 14 ; iii. 1 — 3 ; 2 Kings ii. 17. This shows 
the union between the parts of the great kingdom of God. 
Heaven and earth are not separated by imjDassable barriers ; 
the material and the immaterial kingdoms meet and inter- 
penetrate each other at a thousand points ; and through the 
immensity of space, in which, here and there, at immense dis- 
tances, you meet with suns, and stars, and systems of worlds, 
there may be a celestial spiiitual economy extending to the 
most distant provinces of creation, and imiting the whole 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



539 



with the central throne of God. The Atheists, Saddncees, 
Rationalists, and EngKsh Spiritualists, have high notions of 
the Creator. Brutalised by the materialism in which sin and 
selfishness have enveloped them, they can see no beauty in 
a spiritual world, no excellence in high, noble, immaterial 
nature, no attractiveness or probability in an all-pervading 
kingdom of spirits, as the medium or connecting link between 
the material universe and the invisible God. They long not 
for immortality — they are of the world, and glory in living 
for the world ; virtue is its own reward, and the glorious 
future, which fills the heart of the believer with such lively 
images, such noble hopes, such golden visions of intoxicating 
brightness, has no charm for them. No, they were born of 
the earth, and the earth is their home. The bull has his cow 
and his grass, and he is content. Oh, ye wretched men ! Ye 
glory in your shame, and ye are content with earthly things ; 
there is no greatness in you or your sentiments, and ye well 
verify the dogma, ex nihilo nihil fit. The longing of the natural 
heart is against you ; for, in all its degradation and blindness, 
it looks towards the future with a dark instinctive anticipation 
of punishment or reward ; heathenism is against you, for the 
best and noblest of the heathen sages admitted immortality, 
and longed for a fuller, clearer revelation ; Judaism, with its 
glorious doctrines of the unity of God, a superintending Pro- 
vidence, a redeeming Messiah, and a ministry of angels, is 
against you ; Christianity, with its martyrs and heroes, its 
triumphs and its immortal hopes, is against you. Ye stand 
alone ; ye are monotones in the great gamut of creation, and 
if ye join not in the plan and purpose of the creation, you are 
destined to perish and be forgotten. But we return to the angels. 

III. Objections to the Doctrine of Angels. — These are innu- 
merable, and take shapes as various as the perverted and cor- 
rupted fancy of man. We mention a few of them. 



540 angelology ; thoughts on the holy angels. 

1. We have never seen angels, and till we see them we will 
not believe. Answer : You have never seen Grod, nor your 
own soul, and, on the same principle, you must not believe in 
their existence. We believe in many things that we have 
never seen, and that we cannot see. Our vision is very con- 
tracted; and if the objects of testimony, reflection, and reason 
be excluded from our belief, our creed will be meagre indeed. 
You have never seen death, nor pain, nor gravitation, nor any 
one law of the physical or material universe, and yet you un- 
hesitatingly believe in all these. 

2. The angels are personified events; they are strange natural 
phenomena, which ignorant times have invested with the offices 
and attributes o^ persons. This is the theory of theEationalists. 
Answer : They have personal names, personal offices, they 
perform personal acts ; they hear, and see, and speak, and eat 
and drink like real persons ; they are messengers, succourers, 
and destroyers. Read and compare Gen. xviii. % ; xix. 1 — 15 ; 
xxviii. 12 ; xxxii. 1, 2 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16 ; 1 Chron. xxii. 16 ; 
1 Kings xix, 5 — 7 ; 2 Kings i. 3 ; 2 Kings vi. 17 ; Isaiah 
vi. 2 ; Dan. vii. 10 ; Matt. i. 20 ; ii. 13 ; iv. 11 ; xxviii. 2 ; 
John xii. 29 ; Luke i. 11, 26 ; ii. 9 ; xxiv. 23 ; Mark xvi. 5 ; 
Acts V. 19 ; viii. 26 ; x. 3—22 ; xii. 7—15 ; xxvii. 23 ; Eev. 
V. 2 ; vii. 1 — 11 ; viii, 2, &c. In all these the angels appear 
to individual persons; and if their speeches, acts, promises, 
threatenings, &c., do not prove them to be persons, there is 
no proof for the existence of personal agents at aU. The 
patriarchs, prophets, and apostles to whom they appeared, are 
not real historical personages, but myths of the popular fancy 
and Oriental figures of speech. So far, in fact, some are wiUing 
to go, and we leave them there. They have reached the 
point where error loses its influence. 

3. Others admit their existence, and deny their ministry ; 
they say they are too high, noble, glorious beings to be sent 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



541 



to watch over the folly and stupidity of man. But is not 
God himself represented as doing the same ? Does not God 
watch over his own race ? He is a strange father if he does 
not. These men have strange ways of reverencing God and 
promoting virtue. The universe is a machine so perfect as 
not to need his interference ; man's virtue is of such a fine 
edge that it requires no hopes of futurity to bribe or sustain 
it ; on the other hand, man is so imperfect and despicable, 
that he is beneath the notice of the angels. The sword has 
two edges ; what is perfect does not require His care, and what 
is imperfect is beneath His notice ; and thus the Deity and the 
angels of His might become cold, abstract, beautiful figures 
of speech, and man and the material universe are delivered 
from a superintending Providence. This is the tendency and 
the end of their rational, mythical, and spiritual theories — 
God without action, and man without immortality ; and the 
system is so far consistent, for immortal man with hopes that 
wander into eternity and aspirations that transcend all mate- 
rial excellence, can find peace and satisfaction only in a living 
God. He has passed the region of death, matter, and abstract 
forms. He will know the reality of things, and penetrate into 
the glories of the inner sanctuary, where the Eternal Source 
of excellence sends forth its thousand streams, where the 
uncreated light radiates in beatific efiulgence, and life, love, 
and mercy have their dwelling-place. He must know and 
meet the eye that watched over him, and forgets not the 
falling sparrow ; that tender, though Almighty, heart which 
cared for him in all his weakness and wayward dispositions ; 
that dying love which sought him and conquered him by the 
attractions of Calvary and the Cross. He feels that it is the 
character of greatness to regard the humble. 

4. But it is said, the angels are of no use ; the doctrine 
of angels solves no difiiculties ; we owe them no duties. I 



542 angelology; thoughts on the holy angels. 

answer : (1.) This doctrine enlarges our views of the king- 
dom and administration of God exceedingly, by presenting to 
our faith another order of beings, who, without sin, serve the 
Creator in the beauty of holiness. Our ideas of the glory, 
providence, majesty, and kingdom of God are all enhanced 
and elevated by this doctrine. (2.) It is a holy, sanctifying 
doctrine ; we are surrounded by the pure, the benevolent, and 
the good ; the angel of the Lord encamps round about us 
while we live, and the dying Lazaruses are carried by angels 
to Abraham's bosom. Is this not a delightful, sanctifying 
feeling? Do not angels belong to the cloud of witnesses, 
under whose eyes we run the race set before us ? Are they 
not among that heavenly company, in the 'New Jerusalem, 
which our souls long so much to join? (Heb. vii. 22.) Do 
they not mock the hand of the tyrant and persecutor, when the 
martyrs of Jesus are made a spectacle {Qkarpov — ^theatre) to 
the world, to angels, and to men ? (1 Cor. iv. 9.) This doc- 
trine, then, sustains the Church with noble hopes and exam- 
ples ; and when weakened by the world, or assaulted by the 
temptations of the devil, or bleeding under the scourge of 
Antichrist, are not the holy sufferers animated by the assu- 
rance that they have the sympathy and regard of the angels 
of God ? The unholy persecute and despise them, angels 
rejoice over them and love them. Earth is indifferent, or 
opposed, but all heaven — God, the Mediator of the New 
Covenant Jesus Christ, and the holy angels — are watching the 
sufferers, and waiting to adorn them with the martyr's crown, 
(3.) Eead the following passages, and you will see how impor- 
tant are the ministry and mission of the angels, with respect not 
only to the strengthening and comfort of the church, but also 
with regard to the universal kingdom of God ; Ps. xxxiv. 8 ; 
xci. 11, compare with Matt. iv. 6 ; Luke iv. 10, andxvi. 20 ; 
Ps. ciii. 20 ; civ. 4. Compare Heb. i. 7 ; Ps. cxlviii. 3 ; 



OBJECTIONS A-PfSWERED, 



543 



Matt. xiii. 49, 39 ; xviii. 10 ; xxiv. 36 ; xxv. 31 ; xxyi. 53 ; 
Mark i. 13 ; Luke xxii. 43 ; 1 Peter iii. 22 ; Mark viii. 38 ; 
Luke ix. 26; xii. 9 ; xv. 10 ; John xii. 29; Acts vii. 53. 
Compare Gfal. iii. 19, and Heb. ii. 2 ; E,om. viii. 38, 39 ; 2 Cor. 
xi. 14 ; Gral. i. 8; 2 Thess. i. 7. Compare Ps. ciii. 20, and 
Matt. xiii. 21 ; 1 Tim. iii. 16; v. 21 ; Heb. i. 5, 6; xii. 22 ; 
xiii. 2 ; Rev. xii. 7. These are only a specimen of such texts, 
and they show very clearly the importance of the Scripture 
doctrine of angels. (4.) The bearings of this question of the 
existence and doctrine of angels are much wider than might 
appear at the first sight. If good angels do not exist, neither 
do fallen ones ; and thus you get rid of the fall of men, angels, 
and the very existence of the devil, and this is exactly what 
these men are running after. If there be no fall there can be 
no need of redemption ; and the person, work, and offices of a 
Mediator are altogether unnecessary. They work with their 
eyes open ; and if you admit their principles, you must adopt 
their conclusions ; and that Book which claims inspiration of 
God and is the fountain of such blessings to mankind, becomes 
a mythical or fabulous mythology, like that of Greece or Pome. 
The fall, the temptation, the creation in six days, the deluge, 
the Egyptian bondage, the wilderness wanderings, the plagues, 
miracles, and traditions, the settlement in the land, the hopes 
of a Messiah, the sacred books, the coming of Christ, the 
miracles, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and mediation, of 
Christ, form an accumulation of national traditions, in which 
truth and falsehood are inextricably commingled. This is 
neology ; nor can you avoid it, or conquer it, if you once admit 
the spiritualising principle of interpretation. Hegel says 
(Gesch. der Philosophic), " To require men to believe in the 
external, historical narratives of the Old and the New Testa- 
ment, is to destroy both the faith and the church.'' This, 
it must be admitted, is one of the newest methods of pre- 



544 ANGELOLOGY ; THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY ATs^GELS. 

serving the faith ; and, armed with that weapon, neither 
angels, nor men, doctrines nor facts, history nor Providence, 
can stand before the indignant philosopher. 

lY. — Various questions concerning angels. 

1st. Why do they not appear to us as formerly ? Answer : 
^' God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in 
time past unto the fathers, hath, in these last days, sjaoken 
unto us by his Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all 
things, by whom, also, he made the worlds " (Heb. i. 1, 2). 
He manifested Himself by dreams, visions, voices, in 
clouds, in flaming fires, in gentle hreathings, and in the in- 
spiring power of the Roly Ghost (2 Peter i. 21), and by the 
appearances of angels. JN^ow His incarnate Son supplies the 
place of all. In Him we see the Father, and hear the 
Father's voice, and all the former partial manifestations of 
the Divine Nature, are summed up and sealed in Emmanuel 
the true and eternal Revealer of God. We shall shortly join 
the angelic hosts above in praising the Redeemer. 

" Worthy the Lamb that died, they cry. 
To be exalted thus ; 
Worthy the Lamb, our hearts reply, 
For He was slain for us." 

Till then, we must be content to believe in their presence, 
ministry, and love. 

2nd. Wherein do they differ from men ? They were 
created diiferently. Man is compound and they are simple 
beings. They were created all at once (so far as we knowj 
by the simple fiat of God, and so they cannot have the same 
social tendencies and principles as the human race. Man 
was created a unit, from whom as a fountain, by paternity 
and filiation, the myriads of mankind were to flow, thus 
revealing in all our history and fortunes as a race, the glorious 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



principle of paternity and sonsliip which exist in the Godhead 
itself. The three persons of the Gfodhead were engaged 
specially in his creation (Gfen. i. 26), and the mystery of the 
Trinity, which is three Divine persons in one infinite nature, 
is testified unto in the human family, where many human 
persons exist in the finity of one created nature. There is 
no paternity among the angels ; they have no families, and 
the varieties of sex are unkno^wn (Matt. xxii. 30). They are 
not little and big as among men, nor j^oung and old, nor rich 
and poor ; but under the one canopy of celestial glory, they 
fulfil the functions of their being in the full vigour of un- 
changeable youth and beauty. Their white robes are 
unstained ; and, if they sjrmpathise with the guilty, it is 
because their Lord and Creator is good and His goodness 
endureth for ever. 

3rd. Why is there no redemption among the angels ? We 
observe that redemption of angels is impossible, if subjected 
to the same conditions as among men. The basis of the 
scheme of redemption, yea, of the possibility of atonement, 
is the principle of " the many in the one,''' which lies deeply 
imbedded in our nature, and is indeed the key to the moral 
administration of God, in so .far as it refers to the human 
race. It runs through our entire history, and meets you at 
every step, equally in the two great parties which have 
divided the race from the beginning — the Cains and the 
Abels — the Esaus and the Jacobs — the Sauls and the Davids 
— the infidels and the believers — the goats and the sheep — 
the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. He 
created us all in one, Adam ; we were all cursed in the one 
act of one man ; in the blessing of Shem, nations were 
blessed; in the curses of Ham and Canaan, nations were 
cursed, and are sufiering under the malediction unto the pre- 
sent hour. Through kings, fathers, pastors, (fee, the blessing 



546 ANGELOLOGY ; THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY ANGELS. 

or the curse flows forth upon the many, so that the same 
principle extends to all nations, ages, and generations. This 
is the basis of atonement. If the curse flows through the one 
upon the many, why not the blessing ? If myriads sufier 
because Adam sinned, why should not myriads live because 
Jesus died ? But I see no traces of this principle among the 
angels. Besides, only a part of the angels fell, but the whole 
family of man Avere involved in ruin, and it does not comport 
with the majesty of God that the whole race should be 
blotted out fpom the system of the obedient universe. Satan, 
too, was the first mover of sedition both in heaven and on the 
earth, and it was meet that his pre-eminent guilt should be 
punished in order that the stable laws of righteousness might 
remain in force, and the Lawgiver appear in the eyes of the 
creation not a sin-indulger but a sin-avenger. 

4th. "Which is the higher order of being, angels or men ? 
Everything conspires to testify that the angels are higher 
than man in his present condition, or even in his unfallen 
state. Their names show this, as cherubim (Gren. iii. 24; 
1 Sam. iv. 4 ; Ps. Ixxx. 2 ; Is. xxxvii. 16) ; seraphim (Is.vi. 2 — 6). 
Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers (Col. i. 16), 
compared with the angels, authorities, and powers (1 Pet. 

iii. 22), which are subject to Christ. These names are super- 
human. Their office is higher, as the guardians of the person 
of Jesus Christ (John i. 51 ; Luke i. 11—20 ; Matt. i. 20, 21 ; 

iv. 11 ; Luke xxii. 42; Matt, xxviii. 2—7; Acts i. 10—12; 
Matt. xxiv. 31 ; 1 Thes. iv. 16) ; as guardians of the elect 
(Heb. i. 14 ; Ps. xxxiv, 7, &c.) ; as guardians of nations and 
kingdoms (Dan. x. and xii). Th&n: place is higher ; they are 
before the throne of God, engaged in the holy service of the 
Creator and Redeemer (Rev. v. 11). For these reasons I 
believe the angels to be greater, higher, and more powerful 
beings than man in his creation state. But, redeemed man ? 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



547 



— man chosen, ransomed, risen from the dead, and glorified ? 
I believe he is the highest creature in the universe, fulfilling 
the noblest destinies and manifesting most faithfully the 
glories of God. Our nature is united to the Son of God. 
He took not on Him the nature of angels, but He took on 
Him the seed of Abraham. Here is the fountain from which 
human greatness flows — not the greatness of Adam over the 
lower world, nor the greatness of mind to control material 
laws, nor the greatness of philosoj)hy and wisdom merely — 
but the glory of being united to the living God himself, of 
sitting on the throne of the worlds, and manifesting to angels 
and the universe His everlasting fulness. The humiliation of 
the Son of God is the measure of the exaltation of the Son 
of Man. God with us, the God-man, He shows us how low 
love can stoop down to save us ; in heaven He is the Man- 
God, man lifted up into the fellowship and glory of God to 
teach every creature how glorious the work of Christ is, and 
unto what heights of glory the human nature has been exalted. 
Angels stand around the throne while our glorified nature is 
upon it. Here we see the end of the great purpose of Jehovah 
(Eph. i. 9, 10) to gather all things unto one in the Mediator, 
and confirm in endless stability and blessedness the heavenly 
and the earthly things under the headship of the God- Man. 
What a height to look up to is that heavenly throne ! and 
my Brother is on it, and He has promised me a place in it ! 
(Rev. iii. 21.) Surely, if such be the hopes of the ransomed 
soul, we may say, 

" 'Twas great to call a world from nought, 
'Twas greater to redeem !" 

December lOtJi, 1853. 



N N 2 



548 



KLOPSTOCK ; HTS CHARACTER AND POETRY. 



II.— KLOPSTOCK; HIS CHARACTEE AND POETRY. 

The fame of tliis fine poet is miicli greater than his merit. 
His dramas are the most miserable pretences, and have never 
obtained any consideration. He -was destitute of creative 
power, and his characters are only stately unimpassioned 
declamation. The fine lines of onr great dramatist never 
applied to him : — 

" The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling. 
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ; 
And, as imagination bodies forth 
The forms of things unknown, the jDoet's pen 
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing 
A local habitation and a name." 

Some kinds of poetry require no imagination at all, others 
only some slight tints from that aerial painter ; but the 
drama is entirely based on that creative mental power. I do 
not mean the power which can ornament and illustrate, and 
shed over all things a star-Kke radiance ; but the massive, 
creative, incorporating genius, Avhich, out of its own materials, 
or without materials (like Grod), can call forth new worlds 
of harmony and beauty. It was, therefore, no wonder Klop- 
stock failed here. His odes are the most popular of his 
works, yet they never penetrated and they never can pene- 
trate the national mind of any country. They are too abstract 
and stately for popularity ; they want the fire of enthusiasm, 
which, like electricity, strikes through a people, and trans- 
fuses the national life. They may be called fine, lofty, and 
even musical, but they are never genial ; they never embody 
the feelings, the fears, the hopes, or the fervour of impassioned 
masses, so that the odes and the sentiments should be for ever 



Kr.OPSTOCK ; his CHAEACTEU and EOETRY. 549 

identified in the aspirations of a people. It is , this identity 
Avhich makes popularity. The elements of popularity exist 
everwhere, in nature, in the traditions of a people, in their 
heroes and histories ; the poet unites, embodies them, and 
becomes the fi.t organ for expressing them ; his word is the 
echo of nature, the Yoice of the inarticulate multitudes who 
feel, and act, and admire, but can utter nothing ; he creates 
channels for the torrents of enthusiasm, and music for the 
gentler voices of the heart ; he gives a tongue to the thunder 
clouds of heaven, and his words are the lightning-conductors 
of nations. The highest idea of a poet is the mediator 
between the felt and the uttered. He is the prophet of 
nature. But what do you say to the Messiah ? Jesus Christ 
the Son of God, and the Eedeemer of mankind, can never, 
among Protestants, be the proper subject of a great epic poem. 
His character is too lofty, too holy and pure, too thoroughly 
known and criticised for ages. All is real, and little or 
nothing ideal ; there is no cloudland, in which the poet 
might create palaces, islands, and new worlds ; no mists of 
dim fabulous ages, in which superstitious fables and mythol- 
ogies have peopled the popular mind with gods and heroes : 
the God-man is a great reality, yea, the great reality of the 
universe, and its very majesty and glory oppress the human 
fancy. If you add to the sublime conception presented in the 
Gospels, it is an impertinence ; if you vary it, it is a perversion; 
if you transfuse and commingle, as the Papists do, it is a 
superstition, and a superstition to be useful for the poet must 
not be made like a coat, but grow round a people like a skin. 
Every picture and expression of the poet, is liable to be com- 
pared with the Gospels and Epistles, and while the Bible is 
held to be Divine, the poet (who is now held to be only 
human) must necessarily lose in the comparison. Milton's 
subject was more vast, distant, and indefinite, and Milton's 



550 



THE SIGHING OF THE SOUL AFTER JESTJS. 



mind and genius were equal to anything. Dante, as a Papist, 
with, the infinite superstitions connected with hell and pur- 
gatory floating loosely on the popular mind, had a splendid 
theme, which his still more splendid fancy has made the 
most of. His figures are images presented to the eye. Per- 
haps no poet ever possessed more of the creative, formative, 
imagination. Compared with these two master-minds, in 
the region of poetry, Klopstock sinks low indeed. But what 
are his merits ? He is the first in order of time to present 
a great poem to his nation ; and hence the first cantos of his 
Messiah were welcomed with universal jubilation. He gave 
a name and celebrity to the Teutonic nations. The tendency 
of the public mind which he represented was the conservative, 
and not the oppositional, and the Lutheran nations and 
churches saw in him their hero and defender. He united 
and expressed two great sentiments, patriotism and religion, 
and these were, and still are, the solid bases of his fame. He 
is the man of sentiment, and he attempts nothing else, but 
the sentiments are always noble, and nobly expressed. He 
is not the poet of nature ; far from it, he is formal, reflective, 
and correct, but he is often musical, and if he rarely reaches 
the clouds, he is never in the dust. He did much for Ger- 
man poetry and grammar. He did for German poetry what 
Scott did for English novels, he destroyed all that went 
before him, and laid the foundations of a new temple of fame. 
He gave new poetic forms and measures, and though he 
hated or despised rhyme, he gave fluency, beauty, and musical 
sweetness to the German muse. 



III.— THE SIGHING OF THE SOUL AFTEK JESUS. 

Holy Jesus ! I cast in my lot for time and for eternity with 
thee, and I take thy Gospel for my guide, and thy cross for 



THE SIGHING OF THE SOUL AFTER JESUS. 



551 



my aim, till I reach thee in the mansions of thy glory. One 
hour of communion with Thee, 0 Lamb of God and Saviour 
of the world, is dearer to me than all the pleasures of the 
earth. Thy beauty is not like the fallen fading excellence of 
created things ; thy love, like thy nature, remains for ever ; 
in thy glorious person my full and overflowing soul finds rest 
and satisfaction ; thou, art the foundation on which I rest, 
the Ark of Salvation in which my hopes rise above the waters, 
the Living Yine from which all my sap and strength comes, 
the Morning Star in my weary nights, and the Sun of my 
everlasting day. I have thee, and in thee I possess all 
things ; but I would meditate most on thy love, and long most 
after the fulness of thy love. Thou didst love and think of 
me, 0 my Saviour and Redeemer, before the world was, and 
for me thou didst leave thy throne and glory, thy royal state 
and majesty, to be clothed with the weakness and wants of our 
nature. 0 Jesus, who can measure thy love ? Who can know 
it ? It is high as heaven, what can we know ; and deep as 
the grave, what can we do ? The glory of heaven and the 
bosom of the Father, and the throne, majesty, and dominion 
of the universe, Thou didst leave for me — for me, a miserable, 
wretched, rebellious sinner, who has no claim to look up with, 
to the holy Gfod, save mercy — thine own sweet blessed mercy, 
0 holy Jesus, which loves to encircle the lost and the perish- 
ing. 0 lead me into the mysteries of thy bitter cross and 
passion, that I may — ^heart, soul, and all my desires — be filled 
with thy dying love ; that the eye of faith may behold thy 
glory ; the ear delight in no music, save thy name for ever- 
more. Give me a double portion of thy love ; thy love is 
better than life. Oh, I would indeed leave the world, yea, 
hate it and all things, that I might be found in thee, and 
clothed with the robe of thy righteousness. 0 give me the 
spirit of the saints, prophets, and martyrs of the olden time, 



5o2 • 



INSPIRATION ; GERMAN NOTIONS. 



for thou art tlie same glorious and merciful Saviour, as in 
tlie days of old. 0,1 would live to thee alone ; I would 
renounce the world, and all its pomps and vanities, for thee ; 
nor have I any joy so dear, 0 Lord, thou knowest, as medi- 
tating on thy love, and preaching to perishing sinners the 
riches of thy grace. 0, give me grace, and faith, and fire, 
that I may consume my whole being, as a living sacrifice, on 
the altar of thy love. I would enter into Thee by faith, that 
I might see sin and sinners, the beauty of holiness, and the 
Divine mercy, with thine eyes. I long for sjrmpathy with 
Gfod, and though I cannot see Him, nor feel Him, nor realise 
His presence, yet I know that He is love, and will never 
leave nor forsake me. 0 Jesus, my Mediator and Redeemer, 
hear and answer my sighing after thee ; hear and answer me, 
for the sake of thine own dying love. Be my strength and 
my deliverer, in the trials and temptations of this life, and my 
crown of rejoicing in thy heavenly kingdom. — Amen. 



IV.— INSPIRATION ; GEEMAN NOTIONS. 

Our veneration for the Bible must depend on the views 
which we entertain of its origin and authority. There are 
three great parties among professing Christians, whose 
opinions on the doctrine of inspiration are totally difierent 
from each other. 1st. We have the Rationalists, who go 
the whole length of their system, and reject all supernatural 
events as impossible. With them the Bible is a human book, 
and is in no sense the word of Grod ; its doctrines are indeed 
purer than most mythologies, and its morality is the best in the 
world ; but its mysteries are fables, its histories old popular 
Jewish or Christian traditions, and its system of salvation 
the result of the folly or fanaticism of mankind. These 



inspiration; gekman notions. 553 

include tlie German Naturalists, the English Spiritualists of 
the present day, and the Bcriptural Deists of the olden time. 
These men deny all inspiration. 2nd. There is a second 
class, mainly to be found in England and America, who 
believe in the literal verbal inspiration of the whole Bible. 
With them the Bible is God's word, and contains the intima- 
tions of His will, as pure and direct as if we heard the living 
voice speaking to us from heaven. These two classes are 
direct opposites, and their doctrines are clear and intelligible. 
The one says the Bible is inspired, and the other says it is 
not. 3rd. There is a great third party, who will have nothing 
to do with these extremes. Their motto is, "The word of 
God is in the Bible, but the Bible is not the word of God.'' 
All necessary Divine truth is contained in the Bible, and 
what required inspiration is inspired, and it is the ofl&ce of 
human reason to separate the true from the false, as well as 
the inspired from the human. This seems to be the prevail- 
ing opinion in Germany, and it seems to be awfully perni- 
cious. I think it probable that Origen and Jerome were the 
occasion of this deadly error and the thousand evils which 
flow from it. The first of these celebrated men denied the 
external sense of Scripture whenever his theories required it, 
and thus laid the foundation for this erroneous principle ; 
and Jerome gave a false translation of 2 Tim. iii. 16, which 
has been more noxious that any other mis-translation in 
the Bible. Dacra ypa<j>ri OzoinyevcFTog, Kai tocpEXijuoQ, &c. ; he 
renders thus : "Omnis Scrip tura divinitus inspirata utilis est," 
&c., viz., " All Scripture given by inspiration is useful," &c. 
The objections to this are the following : 1st. It leaves out the 
fcai altogether, in which, indeed, Luther imitates him. This is 
a daring perversion of the sacred text, and would justify the 
boldest perversions. If you may leave out one word you may 
leave out another, and the whole Scripture may be twisted and 



554 INSPIRATION ; GERMAN NOTIONS. 

mutilated at pleasure. 2nd. This translation lays the founda- 
tion for the blasphemous assumption that some parts of Scrip- 
ture are inspired and others not ; all Scripture, it boldly 
pretends, is not inspired of God (OEOTrv^vGrog), but all of it 
that is so is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, &c. This lays 
the foundation for the horrid distinctions which the Papists 
and the Rationalists make in the word of God. Jerome was 
unfortunately followed by Luther, who introduced the evil 
into the Protestant communities, and made it popular by the 
general distribution of his Bible. All later Protestant trans- 
lations have corrected the errors of Luther in whole or in part, 
while Kistermacher and the Papists follow the Yulgate with- 
out the least reference to the Greek text. Beza has supplied 
the ellipsis properly, and given the right translation : " Tota 
Scriptura divinitus est inspirata, et utilis ad doctrinam," &c. ; 
De Wette has : " Yegliche Schrift ist Gott-begeistert und 
niitz zur Lehre," &c. ; viz. : " Every Scripture (viz. every 
passage) is given by inspiration of God, and is useful," &c. 
Thus the origin of this error is the Popish Yulgate, which 
unfortunately Luther followed in this passage. The Ration- 
alists and Infidels saw the advantage, and they use it to the 
uttermost. The evils which this mis-translation has occa- 
sioned, are the following : 1st. The Bible is partly human 
and partly Divine ; the Bible is not the inspired word of God ; 
but the inspired word of God is in the Bible ; hence, 2nd, 
the human mind is thrown into all manner of doubts and 
uncertainty, inasmuch as there is no definite rule for deciding 
between the human and the Divine ; the authority of the 
Bible as the word of God and the guide of mankind is so 
weakened as to be nearly useless. 3rd. The reason or fancy 
of each individual must finally decide how much of the Bible 
is inspired and how much is not ; the reason of Deists, and 
Spiritualists, and full-grown Rationalists, rejects all inspira- 



INSPIRATION ; GERMAN NOTIONS. 



555 



tion; otliers will limit it to prophecy and doctrine, while 
the historical parts are merely human, and contain many 
errors and contradictions. This false doctrine of inspiration 
is the teeming fountain from which the multifarious false- 
hoods in doctrine, criticism, and exposition flow. They do 
not tremble before the words of God as Moses did when he 
heard His voice ; they apply their apparatus to the Scripture as 
an antiquarian does to Egyptian hieroglyphics, and by adding, 
diminishing, and changing, they can produce new doctrines, 
new theories, and new philosophies, every year. The Bible 
is not received and loved as the pure and holy word of God, 
and hence these foolish speculations. The Bible delivers us 
from the authority of man, and this theory from the authority 
of God. Blessed be God, the tide is turned in this land, and 
the Bible is resuming its place as the authority and guide of 
the nations. Theory after theory, and philosophy after phi- 
losophy, are passing away Kke footprints on the sand before 
the waves, and the German churches, awakened from the 
slumber of death by the terrors of revolution, are turning 
to the old paths of Scripture, and to the spiritual artillery, 
long neglected, with which their heroic fathers broke the 
pillars of the Papacy and achieved the emancipation of the 
German race. May they return to the pure word of God 
and the glorious truth — " All Scripture is given by inspiration 
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correc- 
tion, for instruction in righteousness ; that the man of God 
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works " 
(2 Tim. iii. 16, 17). 

December IQth, 1853. 



556 



WTELAND. 



v.— WIELAND. 

He is the direct opposite of Klopstock, and in him first the 
new tendencies of the materialising age found their expression. 
These two great men symboKse the two tendencies of the 
times, or rather the weakened tendencies of the passing age 
and the new stormy principles of fresh systems of philosophy 
and religion. Klopstock is a believer, Wieland is a denier, if 
not an infidel ; Klopstock is moral, majestic, stately — Wieland 
is material, sensual, and humorous. The past and the future 
encompass the author of the " Messiah with their haloes of 
glor)^, while Wieland lived for and in the present, and his 
philosophy may be summed up in the phrase, " Be a virtuous 
man, and live according to nature." He sat always on the 
opposition benches ; he was an opposer of all existing things 
and systems, and the great aim and burden of his life was to 
oppose fanaticism and hypocrisy, not in religion only, but in 
history, in poetry, in the world of fairies, giants, and heroes, 
and in the soberer world of human life. He was a poet, and 
yet he is the mortal enemy of every form of enthusiasm. 
His works belie his theories at every step. Enthusiasm 
for philosophy, for the sublime and beautiful in nature and 
history, for poetry, antiquity, and fame, is the object of his 
bitter, biting scorn. He will admire nothing but Diogenes 
in his tub, who is content with bread and water and sunshine. 
How could a man with such feelings and principles be an 
admirer of Klopstock and the enthusiasm of the apostoKc 
ages ? He was a mild, meek spirit, and possessed great ver- 
satility, but little greatness. His models were Shaftesbury, 
Voltaire, and Cervantes. He glories in fine, brilliant, recon- 
dite himaour. Most of his works are poetic-prose, teeming 
with humour, satire, and sarcasm, but without the measure 
and form of poetry. He is not purer than Swift, and he is 



LEARNED MEN AND CRITICS. 



557 



less learned and witty tlian Hudibras. We have many poets 
with freer passages than are found in Wieland, but none 
whose bent and effort is so sensual and materialising. The 
theory of his life is simply nature, in which he includes merely 
the full and virtuous enjoyment of present things. He burst 
the barriers of the old stately, systematic, conventional world, 
and launched forth on the rising tide of the negative and 
oppositional philosophy. Yet he was no revolutionist. He 
was mild and amiable. It is not to be denied that he guided 
the stream in the anti- Christian direction, and, by removing 
the thoughts from the future, sought to extinguish the noblest 
principles of man ; yet he did much for his country and its 
noble language ; he added to their stores of national literature, 
and gave another name to the celebrities of Fatherland. He 
gave sweetness, ease, and elegance to their poetic language, 
and in this respect he is in direct opposition to the stately 
stiff formality of Klopstock. His Oberon " is still popular, 
"but the mass of his works lie quietly on the shelf. It would 
have been well for his celebrity if he had lived in another 
age, for the potent stars that followed him have eclipsed his 
fame. ' 



VI.— THE NATURE OF GERMAN CELEBRITY ; LEARNED 
MEN AND CRITICS. 

Literature and philosophical science is much freer in Ger- 
many than in England. This may seem strange, but it is an 
undeniable fact. When a professor is appointed in one of the 
universities, he seems to be entirely independent of all for- 
mulas, confessions of faith, and theoretic restrictions. This 
is absolutely true of all but divinity professors, and even they 
have much freer scope for speculation and scepticism than 
with us. The philosophical lecturers may teach what they 
please concerning nature, the human race, the universe, and 



558 



LEARNED MEN AND CRITICS. 



God ; and neither popular vehemence nor imperial authority 
can interfere. This does not arise from the balancing of 
parties, nor indifference to truth, but from the high estimation 
in which learned men are universally held. In the faculty 
of divinity a professor is nearly equally free ; you may find 
all varieties of orthodoxy and heterodoxy among them ; in 
one class-room you hear the full verbal inspiration of the 
Scriptures taught, in another the Apocrypha and the Scripture 
are reduced to nearly the same level, and the human mind 
delivered from their binding power. Opinions and theories do 
not run in channels as with us, where the various sects and 
parties have their set doctrines which they hold and defend ; 
by no means — in one book, in one lecture-room, you may hear 
various parts of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, Arianism and So- 
cinianism, Arminianism and high Calvinism, brought together 
and defended. There is nothing like our systematic theology, 
or rather each has a system of his own. The ancient doctrines 
of the Trinity, redemption through the sacrifice of the incarnate 
Son of God, the sanctification of the Holy Ghost in the mem- 
bers of Christ, may be, and are, denied, modified, or defended 
at pleasure. The church courts, the public opinion, and the 
royal authority do not, or dare not, interfere, except in the 
most extreme cases. How is this ? The answer is, that the 
Germans do not give so much importance to dogma as we do ; 
they place the essence of Christianity more in the life, heart, 
and affection of the believer than in the working out of sys- 
tems ; and nothing can be more common than to find men 
loved and admired as pious, holy, exemplary, Christian 
ministers and professors, who could find no resting place in 
England but among Arians or unbelievers. Deeply is the 
sentiment of Pope wrought into the public mind of Germany — 

" For modes of faith let graceless bigots fight, 
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right." 



LEARNED MEN AND CRITICS. 



559 



Dr. Rothe, a famous professor in this University (of Bonn), 
is generally admired as a defender of tlie Scriptures against 
E-ationalism, and when he preaches the church is crowded to 
overflowing. He is considered a very godly, pious man, and 
his moral character is unblameable ; yet he teaches the stu- 
dents of the Church of God that the temptation of Christ is a 
myth, and historically impossible, and that, among other rea- 
sons, because there was no room on the pinnacle of the temple 
for the Devil to stand upon ! This he proved statistically 
and with great learning (I might as well prove the ascension 
from Olivet impossible, because there is no ladder long 
enough), to admiring, doubting, and orthodox students. He 
rejects the entire doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and yet main- 
tains and defends the atonement ; he worships and prays to 
Jesus Christ, and yet maintains he had no existence before 
the birth from the Virgin Mary ! Paul, he asserts, knows 
nothing of, and never teaches the pre-existence of Christ. 
Col. i. 15—18 ; 1 Cor. viii. 6 ; Eph. iii. 9 ; Hebrews i. 2, 
give this pious, orthodox Socinian professor, no trouble ; his 
critical alembic (a theological kind of gastric juice) has such a 
dissolving power, that the most varied and heterogeneous mate- 
rials yield to its touch ! This is the true principle of celebrity 
in Grermany ; extreme absolute assertions, with long, learned, 
attempts to support them ; the novelty of daring bold opi- 
nions, sprinkled with a spice of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin 
quotations, so that the naked absurdities may be glossed over 
with a critical veneering ; this makes a man famous ; nor does 
the nature of his opinions enter into the estimation at all, or 
at least, very little. If the man is learned, he will be sought 
after and caressed, be his sentiments what they may. Do not 
suppose for a moment that I depreciate German learning, far 
from it ; on the contrary, their labours in the field of history 
and criticism are the noblest, the most potent, and the most 



o60 



LEARNED MEN AND CRITICS. 



successful in the world ; but they are not so safe, so practical, 
nor so consistent, as our own. The imagination of the German 
is prodigious, and altogether different from that of the French 
and English. It partly unfits him for the sublime office of the 
critic, who requires, more than any man, the cautious tena- 
cious principles of reflective reason. It is not easy to account 
for the fact that the quiet, sober, plodding Germans should 
abound in the highest faculties of imagination, but a fact it 
is, and so well known, that a humorist has said, God has 
given the English the sea, the French the land, and the 
Germans the air, for their portion." This testimony is true ; 
they are more learned than really critical, more humorous 
than witty (indeed they seem to despise mere wit), more 
renowned for collecting materials than judicious in disposing 
of them ; they surpass all nations in the impartiality of their 
judgments, and all nations, save the Arabs, in the sublimity 
of their imagination, which, altogether unlike ours, rarely 
scintillates and coruscates in occasional brilliant tints over 
the dark ground of discourse, but in Oriental magnificence, 
sometimes dark and cloudy, sometimes luminous, as the sun, 
holds its sublime and supernatural course. It rejoices in mys- 
tery and meaning, known only to the few — in sublime myths 
of the fancy and aerial forms, which occupy an ideal world of 
their own ; yet it is not formative and creative, in the highest 
sense of the word ; the forms are not distinctly bounded ; they 
are too indefinite and aerial, and, like silver globes on ice, or the 
ghosts of Ossian, escape your grasp. The Midsimimer Mght's 
Dream is as much beyond the Germans, as the second part of 
Faust is beyond the English. A staid and sober imagina- 
tion is indeed necessary to the critic, to irradiate his materials 
and assist him to arrange and classify ; a wild glowing fancy 
is, on the other hand, most noxious, and confounds all the 
distinctions of the real and the visionary, the true and the 



IS IT NOT POSSIBLE TO TEACH THEOLOGY PROFITABLY? 561 

false, the mythical and the historical. This last has long 
prevailed in Grerman)^, and hence their ^yild mad theories of 
philosophy, religion, and human life. 

December 22nd, 1853. 



VII.— IS IT NOT POSSIBLE TO TEACH THEOLOGY 
PROFITABLY? 

" Yes," says my friend, " but what do you mean by ' pro- 
fitably,' for perhaps we differ about that?" ''I mean by pro- 
fitably something like the following : — I. Jesus Christ, in His 
glorious person, offices, and work, both on earth and in 
heaven, should be the centre of the system ; love to Him, 
holy communion with the Father through Him, should be 
one great end of the prelections ; should breathe through 
discussions and ministrations of the class-room ; there should 
be learning, there should be profound research. There may be 
eloquence, reason, and imagination brought to bear on the 
Christian argument, but the all-pervading spirit should be 
holy love to Grod and the soids of men. We want only a few 
learned men ; but we want thousands of holy, devoted minis- 
ters, who, taking their life in their hands, will go in among 
the doubting, disbelieving, exasperated people, and proclaim 
to them the message of Jehovah's love ; men who, knowing 
and beKeving there is a God above them, and a Mediator 
thi'ough whom we must approach Him, — that there is a world 
to be overcome, and a devil to be resisted, and hell to be 
avoided, and immortal glory to be won — will, out of love to 
God and the souls of men, devote themselves to the work of 
the ministry ; labourers rather than gentlemen (Matt. ix. 37) ; 
workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly di\dding the 
Word of Truth ; apostolic in their doctrines, labours, and 

o o 



,362 IS IT NOT POSSIBLE TO TEACH THEOLOGY PKOFITABLY P 

zeal, and willing to spend and be spent, to live and to die, for 
tlie name of Clirist ; tliis should be the spirit of our divinity- 
halls, and, if this fails, all the rest is sounding brass and a 
tinkling cymbal. II. The Bible should be the text-book ; 
not so much to be defended or attacked, as expounded, and 
its immortal spirit transfused in the hearts of the students— 
the present hope and the future ministers of the Church. 
Its delineations of sin, of the necessity of faith and repentance 
— ^its views of the wonderful love of G-od in Christ to the sinful 
world — its hopes, its fears, and its celestial promises, should all 
be transfused, as much as possible, into the young ministers 
of Christ. With these two essential pre-requisites, I think 
theology might be taught profitably." ^' God preserve us 
from such teaching V cried my Grerman friend. "You are, 
undoubtedly, a protest, and would introduce your fanatical 
doctrines about the new birth, the love of God, and the con- 
version of the world, into the halls of theology I Was ever 
such boldness heard ? Why we have laboured long to banish 
that fanatical, pharisaical spirit of Methodistical pietism from 
our families and churches, and you would introduce it into 
the universities — the venerable asylums of literature, science, 
and liberal sentiments ! 'No, my good friend, the professor of 
theology should act on the following principles : — I. That all 
systems of religion are good and useful, though some are purer 
than others. It may be admitted that Christianity is the 
best religion in the world. 11. The professor should give aU 
systems of exposition and doctrine, with a full statement of the 
argmnents /b/' and against, and then leave the students the 
liberty of judging for themselves. The great object is to 
make them think. Yariety of faith and opinion is by no 
means an evil. Were we better when the Pope ruled us all, 
and forced imiformity of sentiment ? Would you have the 
ministers of the Gospel bleating after one another the same 



THE pilgrim's WANTS. 



563 



sounds, like flocks of goats, through all ages ? No, we want 
honest, good, independent ministers of the truth, and not 
fanatics. III. The position, of a divinity professor is one of 
the highest in the world, and he should never debase and 
degrade it by a spirit of sectarian exclusiveness. Suppose our 
universities were to act on your principles, and send forth 
swarms of furious fanatics, filled with the desire of converting 
all their neighbours, and who could and would speak of 
nothing but the cross of Christ and the necessity of repent- 
ance, what would be the consequences? They would be most 
disastrous. In the first place, such conduct would be punish- 
able by the civil laws ; for the state holds many religions to 
be true and useful, and will not permit you to interfere with 
your neighbours. It would introduce confusion and distress 
into families; and, finally, all the learned and intelligent 
classes of the community would be led, through such fanati- 
cism and hypocrisy, to abandon Christianity altogether." I 
had nothing to say in reply, save the text, " God forbid that 
I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world 
and that Paul "determined not to know anything," among 
the Corinthians, " save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." 
(2 Cor. ii. 2.) My friend and I parted as we met, without 
having convinced each other; and we have never seen each 
other since. 



Vril.— THE PILGKIM'S WANTS. 

I. We want an outfit for the journey, as I have often found 
in my Oriental wanderings ; and this we have in the Pascal 
Lamby which ended the bondage of Egypt and fitted the 
people for the wilderness. The cross of Jesus has covered all 

o o 2 



THE pilgrim's WANT^^. 



our transgressioTif?, and remoYed tlie hearv burdens which 
pressed us down. While the weight of unf or given sin lies 
upon us, we can make little progress heaven-ward. II. "We 
want the manna by the way, and the water from the rock ; 
and this we have also in Jesus Christ, who is ascended up on 
high to the right hand of Grod, to give us the Holy Spirit, 
the Comforter, to satisfy our hungry and thirsty souls. Thus, 
everj^ now and then, we have green spots to rest upon, and 
fresh water from the royal wells, digged by the King's com- 
mand in the days of old ; we have the pillar and the cloud too, 
though the world and the flesh often obscure them so that we 
cannot clearly follow them. III. We want the consolation 
of B. future home, when our pilgrimage is done ; and this we 
have in the many-mansioned house of our Father in heaven, 
where there are fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore. 
This hope brightens before our eyes day by day, until the 
promises blend with the glories of their fulfilment. Thus we 
have many wants, and they are all provided for in J esus — ^the 
past, the present, and the future united in his person — the 
passover, the pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles, in which 
we realise the sacrifice, the infer cession, and the second coming 
of Christ. We are complete in Him. 

I want a sweet sense of thy pardoninsr love. 
That my manifold sins are forgiven : 
That Christ as my advocate pleadeth above ; 
That my name is recorded in heaven. — Ps. li. 8, 9. 

I want every moment to feel 

That thy Spirit resides in my heart — 

That His power is present to cleanse and to heal. 

And newness of life to impart. — Rom. ^iii. 11 — 16. 



I want, oh I I want to attain 
Some likeness, my Saviour, to thee ! 



THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 



565 



That longed-for resemblance once more to regain, 
Thy comeliness put upon me ! — 1 John iii. 2, 3. 

I want to be marked for thine own, 
Thy seal on my forehead to wear ; 

To receive that " new name " on the mystic white stone, 
"Which none but thyself can declare. — Rev. ii. 7. 

I want so in thee to abide, 

As to bring forth some fruit to thy praise ! 

The branch which thou prunest, though feeble and diied. 

May languish, but never decays. — John xv. 2 — 5. 

I want thine own hand to unbind 

Each tie to terrestrial things; 

Too tenderly cherished, too closely entwined, 

Where my heart too tenaciously clings. — 1 John iii. 15. 

I want, by an aspect serene, 

My actions and words to declare. 

That my treasure is placed in a country unseen. 

That my heart's best affections are there. — Matt. vi. 19 — 21 . 

I want, as a traveller, to haste 

Straight onward, nor pause on the way ; 

Nor forethought, nor anxious contrivance to waste 

On the tent only pitched for a day. — Heb. xiii. 5, 6. 

I want, and this sums up my prayer, 

To glorify thee till I die ; 

Then calmly to yield up my soul to thy care, 

And breathe out in faith my last sigh ! — Phil. iii. 8, 9. 



December 20th, 1853, 



566 



THE BIRTH OF CHRIST, 



IX.— THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 

Natus est rex glorise 
De Maria virgine 
Non virili semine, 

Apparnit, apparuit, 

Quern genuit Maria ! 

What wonders meet in that manger where the Babe of 
Bethlehem lies ! A long line of prophecies running through 
many ages terminate there, and another series not less im- 
portant to the human race, commences there. This is the 
centre of the immense system of prophecy and promise, under 
which the providence of God had been training the Jewish 
nation, and through them all the nations of the world, in 
order to unfold the principle of the Divine government,' 
which is predestination, as well as the basis of a church, 
which is election, and thereby prepare the way for the King 
of Glory, in his lowly guise, who was to head up and har- 
monise both nature and grace in his own person for ever. 
The seed of the woman pointed to Him ; the Shiloh, to whom 
the gathering of the people is to be, pointed to Him ; the 
great Immanuel prophecy of Isaiah, which showed His nature. 
His character and office, pointed to Him ; here we find the 
Virgin's Son, the Child born, yet the mighty God (Is. ix. 6), 
of whom such wonders are predicted in the Scriptures of 
truth ; here is the meeting of the waters, where a thousand 
streams flow into the ocean fulness of J esus ; here the radi- 
ance from a thousand stars, which held over a troubled world 
the hope of deliverance during long weary ages ; here in the 
manger lies He whom the prophetic eye discerned from afar, 
and of whose coming sages and seers spoke in such seraphic 
strains. To Him all the prophets gave witness from the 



THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 



567 



first of time, and now their testimonies encircle the stable 
where he lies with a brighter moral glory than the angel- 
radiance on the plains around. 

II. All offices meet in this Babe of Bethlehem, He is the 
Great Prophet, who can imfold the mysteries of sin and death 
and the unknown regions of the grave, in whom the sages of 
heathenism and the seers of Israel have found what they 
longed for — the knowledge of the true God, and the way of 
forgiveness of sins. He is the high-priest, through Avhom 
the trembling sinner may approach unto God with confidence ; 
and the King of Glory, to break the power of Pharaoh, 
and deliver us from Egypt. Our wants are three : we are 
ignorant, we are sinful, and we are enslaved, and in Him, as 
our prophet, priest, and king, we have knowledge, pardon, 
and victory over all our enemies. The three roads meet in 
Bethlehem — the roads on which the prophets, priests, and 
kings of the olden time bore their testimonies to the coming 
deliverer. Here the lamp, and the altar, and the throne are 
united in one. 

III. We must connect this Babe in the manger with ti7ne, 
as the infinite glories of the Son of God are now united with 
the limitations and attributes of humanity. All the dis- 
pensations of time are summed up in Him, and the various 
covenants have now reality and form in a visible Head. 
"Wonderful in all respects is this new life, Vt^hich is sown as 
a seed of hope for the world. His entire life on earth was 
about thirty- three and a half years. His public ministry 
three and a half years, and His crucifixion three and a half 
hours ; yet in that short space of time a work was done which 
influenced the past and the future eternities — a work com- 
pared to which all the events of time, from the creation of 
the world, were as nothing, and vanity. We must connect 
this manger with space also, and behold here the openino- 



THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 



fountain from wliich streams of blessing and fertility are to 
overflow the world ; here we see life in its fountain, and light 
in its orb, ready to burst forth in Divine benediction over 
all the earth. He is the centre of all worlds, the Head 
and Mediator of the universe, in whom it pleased the Father 
that all fulness should dwell. See that innocent and holy 
child too, in connection with crime, and behold another side 
of His wonderful character ; the first sin, as well as the first 
promise in Paradise, pointed to the seed of the woman, the 
sin-avenger, and serpent-bruiser, who meet our earliest 
necessities, is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of 
the world. Under the covert of mediation, the administration 
of God has been carried on from the beginning, and the 
long- suffering mercy which spared the transgressor, and 
gradually unfolded the Divine purpose of love, had reference 
to the stable and the manger, the cross and the resurrection 
of the incarnate Son of Grod. All sin must be seen and 
illustrated in the light of His character, without which we 
can estimate neither the love of God in forgiving the 
believer, nor the endless torments which await the impenitent. 
There He lies lowly and in swaddling bands among the 
cribs and provender of cattle, in whom all contrarieties and 
extremes are reconciled. Sages have found Him, star-led 
from the distant East, and angels leave heaven to chant the 
song of his birth. In Him we have all that is high, majestic, 
and glorious, to enhance our conceptions of power, for He 
is God, being the Son of God, and the Word which reveals 
the unapproachable Divinity ; and all that is tender and 
loving to attract weary sinners, for He is Jesus the Man of 
sorrows, the Son of the Virgin, and knows how to pour the 
oil and the wine into our bleeding wounds. Stand, brother, 
and adore ! Bring gold to the king, frankincense to the 
priest, and myrrh to the prophet of God ! Dost thou hear 



IS THERE A CURSE ON THE JEWISH NATION ? 569 

the song of the angels ? its notes are of heaven ! Glory to 
God, and peace on earth, are the highest and lowest notes 
in the music of the skies ! Welcome, thrice welcome, thou 
Prince of peace ! Be thou our light and our guiding-star, 
till we join the hosts that surround the heavenly throne ! 

" Hosanna to the living Lord ! 
Hosanna to the incarnate Word ! 
To Christ, Creator, Saviour King, 
Let earth, let heaven, Hosanna sing ! 

Hosanna ! Lord, let angels cry, 
Hosanna ! Lord, thy saints reply ; 
Above, beneath us, and around, 
We would that all should swell the sound." 

December 2bth, 1853. 



X.— IS THEEE A CUESE ON THE JEWISH NATION? 

Observe for a moment the condition of the Jews as they 
now exist among the nations, and let us take the simple facts 
of the case, apart from revelation altogether. 1st. It is a 
fact that seven millions of men, of the same origin, laws, and 
religion, are scattered through all the nations of the world, 
savage and civilised; they have a common language, by which 
they can communicate with one another through the whole 
world, and they are one of the most united nations on the 
earth. The fact, therefore, of their long dispersion is one of 
the most remarkable events in the history of mankind. 2nd. 
It is a fact, further, that they are not detained in the lands of 
the Gentiles by royal authority, as the burden- bearers and 
slaves of Christian communities. No ! most nations would be 
right glad to get rid of them and even help them forward on 



570 IS THERE A CURSE ON THE JEWISH NATION ? 

their way to Jerusalem ; and their ancient capital, dismantled 
of her glory, sits like a desolate widow, waiting for their 
return. 3rd. It is a fact that they have suffered unheard-of 
persecutions during a long series of ages, sometimes banished, 
sometimes plundered, sometimes cruelly tormented, always 
persecuted in one way or other as an ever djing but immortal 
race, against which the hatred and indignation of mankind 
should exhaust itself in vain ! 4th. It is a fact that the cha- 
racter of the Jews is very bad, and that they deserve not a 
little of the opprobrium which public opinion heaps upon 
them. They are, in the public mind of Germany, nothing 
but extortioners and deceivers, who, like so many vampires, 
suck the blood out of their victims without mercy. 'No doubt 
there is much exaggeration, but there is also much truth in 
the charge. At this moment two of the Jews in this city, 
chief men in the community, are punished as criminals, the 
chief rabbi for lending money at 28 per cent., and Mr. H. for 
perjury in money matters ; this is but a specimen of their 
excessive love of gain ; yet perhaps if we were to set about 
accounting for this trait in their character, we might find 
ourselves compelled to attribute the greater part of it to the 
iniquitous conduct of the Gentile nations themselves. 5th. It 
is a melancholy fact that the inborn hatred of the J ews against 
Jesus Christ is undiminished by time. Ages have roUed over 
them since the crucifixion of Christ, yet the natural heart cries 
still, " Crucify Him, Crucify Him ; away mth Him, away 
^vith Him V and without hesitation they repeat the impreca- 
tion of their fathers, " His blood be upon us and upon our 
children.'' Had they the power, they would put to death 
every apostate or convert, as well as the missionaries, who 
seek to Christianise them. The first blow I received for 
preaching the Gospel, was from a Jewish hand. The obdu- 
racy of their minds is incredible. Hence the real converts to 



HOPE ; THE MANGER OF BETHLEHEM. 



571 



Christianity are the brightest speciraens and ornaments of oiir 
religion, inasmuch as grace has, in their case, surmounted the 
greatest possible obstacles, and those stars must be the bright- 
est that shine through the thickest darkness. Lay all these 
facts together, and Providence will confirm the intimations 
of prophecy, That blindness in part is happened to Israel 
until the fulness of the Grentiles be come in" (Eom. xi. 25). 
They were scattered and their kingdom destroyed, because 
they crucified the Messiah and blasphemed the Holy Spirit of 
God, whom after his resurrection he shed down upon the 
world. Hence they are wanderers, and their beautiful land 
desolate. May the time soon come when the vail shall be 
taken away (2 Cor. iii. 16), and all Israel shall be saved, as 
it is written, " Then shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and 
turn away ungodliness from Jacob" (Eom. xi. 26). 

December 2Qth, 1853. 



XI.— HOPE ; THE MANGEK OF BETHLEHEM 

Awake my soul; immortal hope, 

Her radiant wings extending, 
Thy homage claims, and lures thee on 

To glory never-ending. 

Nor think of sin ! Immanuel stands 
With heavenly hosts surrounded, 

Himself the proof, though sin ahounds, 
That grace hath more ahounded ! 

T see that Lamb ; that bleeding Lamb, 

Whom yet unseen we trusted, 
Tn all his Father's glory clad. 

With all his power invested. 



572 



A AVISH ! 



This, this is bliss ! my longing heart, 

With quenchless ardour glowing. 
Finds rest in Thee ! its ocean-home 

Still full and overflowing ! 

0 holy Lamb of God ! without thee we are nothing, and 
mth thee we have all things ; I would ]ive, labour, and die 
for thee ; no love so sweet as thy love, no rest so pleasant as 
on thy bosom, no hope so bright as the hope of being like 
thee. Shall I indeed stand with thee on the emerald throne, 
in the many-mansioned house of the Great Father of all ! 0 
my Lord, my life, my all, accept in this, my lowly struggling 
sinful estate, the deepest homage which my weak faith can 
bring ; I would give it all and a thousand times more, were 
it mine, for thou hast redeemed me from the power of the 
grave, and I hope, through grace, to reign with thee in thy 
heavenly kingdom. • 



XII.— A WISH I 



" Waft, waft, ye winds, his story; 

And you, ye waters, roU, 
Till, like a sea of glory, 

It spreads from pole to pole ; 
Till o'er our ransomed natiu'e 

The Lamb for sinners slain, 
Redeemer, King, Creator, 

In bliss return to reign." 



Weht, weht, ihr Winde, eilet ! 
Ihr Meereswogen rollt ! 
Bis Jesu Wort ertheilet 
1st jedem Hirtenvolk.- 
Und der Messias werde 
Ernannt, das Heil der Welt, 
Als Hii-te seiner Heerde, 
Die Er sich auserwahlt. 



Oxiord Press, Oxford Mews, Paddington. 



